Ever wondered how can people have such extreme & radical opinions?

As if no one can hold a neutral position, only black or white?

Well, this isn´t an accident... We are being polarized into taking extreme positions on all topics. By design.

1/
Why? Well, here are a few ideas to connect:

- All social media platforms want your attention
- All social media platforms want you to spend as much time on their platform as possible
- Hot audiences buy more than cold ones
- Targeted audiences also buy more

Ready? Let´s go.

2/
Social media platforms want one thing: to make money off of your attention.

The longer you spend on their platform, the more ads they can show you, the more customers for advertising they will have, etc.

It´s just their business model. All businesses exist to make a profit.

3/
Now, the best way to keep you on their platform is to offer you something you like.

Be it tweets, videos, emails, articles, etc. the bottom line is this: if you like what you see, you will spend more time there.

Due to it being an attention economy, competition is fierce.

4/
Due to competition being fierce, the platform that BEST shows you what you like will beat others.

How can they serve what they *think* you will like?

Hypertargeting.

The more you use a platform, the more it knows about your preferences, the more it shares similar things.

5/
Some dangers or second-order effects of hypertargeting:

- Echo chambers
- Filter bubbles

Essentially, you live in your own atomized world, created just for you & those similar to you.

6/ https://twitter.com/BGZeroTwoOne/status/1323907173374722049
When "a side" doesn´t understand "the other side", they aren´t lying.

For everyone of us, we are in our own bubble. Only those with similar preferences will be close.

We never see anything contrarian to our echo chambers. If only, to reinforce our preexisting thoughts.

7/
Atomization of our small little worlds, pushed & reinforced by the social media platforms' business models is driving this distancing with people of opposing views.

No side holds the truth, yet each side holds *some* truth.

Avoiding the circlejerk of your own bubble is key.

8/
Join my newsletter, where I write emails that try to challenge my own bubble: http://benjamingeorge.substack.com 

Also, RT the first tweet to spread the word.
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