The Non-Obvious Show · Episode 34
Why Social Media Makes Us Angry
with Tobias Rose-Stockwell
In This Episode
Do you know how social media really works? Tobias Rose-Stockwell's research on how tech amplifies discontent and disrupts democracy has inspired leading tech companies to adopt key interventions to reduce toxicity and polarization. In his book, Outrage Machine, he combines this research with personal anecdotes to create a guide to understanding how the internet has broken our brains and how we can fix it.
In this episode, Rohit Bhargava and Tobias Rose-Stockwell discuss topics inspired by the book, including why we become emotionally arrested by content, content that flirts with the extreme to gain engagement, and the process of changing minds when we live in a period of constant news and opinions.
About The Guest
Tobias Rose-Stockwell is a writer, designer and media researcher, and the author of Outrage Machine. He studies how the design of social platforms amplifies moral outrage, and his work has appeared in The Atlantic, WIRED, NPR and the BBC.
tobias.cc ↗
