The news feed expanded the competition for status to everyone you have every met, rather than the people in your vicinity
Date created: 2023-03-10
The competition for attention then became a race to the bottom. The algorithmic feeds of today enhance trivial content that produces outrage and other strong reactions because your everyday updates to Facebook are no longer enough.
It’s difficult to overstate what a momentous sea change it was for hundreds of millions, and eventually billions, of humans who had grown up competing for status in small tribes, to suddenly be dropped into a talent show competing against EVERY PERSON THEY HAD EVER MET.