Technology has become a sort of paperclip optimizer for engagement. What we want only matters so long as we engage. People probably don’t want to get into inte

Technology has become a sort of paperclip optimizer for engagement. What we want only matters so long as we engage. People probably don’t want to get into internet fights, but it’s how we’re wired. The machine - its workers, managers, C-levels and algorithms - found that strip mining our attention and fuelling outrage somehow boosts its metrics. So it does that.