Absolutely. Media - especially news media - wherein the product is advertising has always had a perverse incentive structure to stir up society to get more eye

Absolutely. Media - especially news media - wherein the product is advertising has always had a perverse incentive structure to stir up society to get more eyeballs. Key in this is the insight that what keeps humans engaged most is angry righteousness and tribalism. The difference is that media never had the tools that are now available to track, optimize for engagement, and also amplify that engagement with immediate social sharing. With this toolbox, we've created something that can cause society to destroy itself - the stakes are really that high. It's not the intention of the media companies but it is the result. Nothing in this world scares me more than particularly our tools created by first social media companies in their compacity to destroy civilization.