From Alan Jacobs:
It’s important to remember this: businesses that rely on constant online or televisual engagement — social media platforms, TV news channels, news websites — make bank from our rage. They have every incentive, whether they are aware of it or not, to inflame our passions. (This is why pundits who are always wrong can keep their jobs: they don’t have to be right, they just have to be skilled at stimulating the collective amygdala.)
My dog barks any time someone comes by the house. It takes her a minute to figure out if this person is a friend or a stranger. And sometimes even when it’s a friend it takes her an extra beat to understand she can come down from RUFFCON 3.
The strangers go as quickly as they appeared, and it means very little to Winter over the course of her day. But if a friend shows up, there’s pets and attention and maybe treats involved.
So maybe a good metric to think about news right now is: Is this just trying to get me to bark, or does this provide me with something I need?
This Builds Character 