Many news organizations ran one of these accounts. Before you judge the reporters too harshly, it’s important to remember that these days the social media tail wags the mainstream media dog. If you want your story to be well placed and if you want to be professionally rewarded, you have to generate page views — you have to incite social media. The way to do that is to reinforce the prejudices of your readers.

Source: Opinion | How We Destroy Lives Today – The New York Times

Confirming what this blog has been saying for years – social media, and now the media, are primarily interested in tweaking your emotional response as click bait. Scary stuff.

The above is a commentary on a viral video clip that seems to have generated enormous amounts of online hate based on misinterpretations. CNN wrote,

It simply demonstrates how social media amplify and inflame our tensions. These online platforms and the algorithms driving them are the real enemies of humankind. Not a few smug white kids or chanting American Indian elders.

Social media, like Facebook and Twitter, are destroying our country if not the world.