Facebook executives shut down efforts to make the site less divisive
Politicians, news companies, and yes, Facebook, all promote divisiveness IMO.  It seems to trigger a primal instinct in (some?) humans to belong to "this" tribe or "that" tribe, and they will go to great lengths to preserve and promote "their" tribe while at the same time trying to squash & demoralize the "other" tribe.  I've known people like this, and for them, it seems to be almost like a sport: they <i>enjoy</i> arguing about why they are right and you are wrong.<p>A person like me who doesn't share this black/white tribal thinking will eventually (usually quickly) walk away from someone super aggressive about their opinions (which they usually believe are facts).  It's boring and becomes quickly obvious that there is no point in trying to have any kind of intelligent discussion, because thinking is not part of the process.<p>Now if you can get two of these aggressive types going at it against each other, now you have a real spectator sport.  It will <i>never</i> end, because neither side is thinking about what the other is saying; they are both just defending their entrenched positions, and they both <i>enjoy</i> the "battle".<p>The arguing becomes like entertainment for these folks, and the more they argue, the more engaged they become in the argument.  IMO, that's why politicians, news, and companies like Facebook, _want_ divisiveness.  They want their audience to feel compelled to interact and engage.<p>The thing I don't understand is that, while I don't know it for a fact, it seems that the "middle", those who are not fanatics, is a much larger audience.  They are turned off by all the aggressive black/white arguing among politicians, news, and internet sites like Facebook.  I've never been on Facebook or looked at a Facebook page.  I stopped watching TV news after it turned into shouting matches over opinions instead of delivering facts.  Same for politicians.<p>It seems like courting the middle, moderate audience would lead to a larger customer base.  But that must be wrong, because surely these gigantic media companies would have tried it by now.