OUTRAGE MACHINE

Foreword by Jonathan Haidt author of THE RIGHTEOUS MIND An invaluable guide to understanding the technology that captures our attention with anger The original internet was not designed to make us upset distracted confused and outraged But something unexpected happened at the turn of the last decade when a handful of small features were quietly launched at social media companies with little fanfare Together they triggered a cascading set of dramatic changes to how media politics and society itself operates inadvertently creating an Outrage Machine we cannot ignore Author designer and media researcher Tobias Rose Stockwell shares the defining shifts caused by these technologies and how they have ignited a society wide crisis of trust Drawing from cutting edge research and vivid personal anecdotes Rose Stockwell illustrates how social media has bound us to an unprecedented system of public performance training us to react rather than reflect and attack rather than debate OUTRAGE MACHINE reveals the triggers and tactics used to exploit our anger unpacking how these tools hack our deep tribal instincts and psychological vulnerabilities and how they have become opportunistic platforms for authoritarians and a threat to democratic norms everywhere But