Hate is profitable.

Yes, terrorists are responsible for their acts. But terrorists are created, not born. And terrorists get their information, find their tribes, and spread their messages the same ways that you and I do.

Massive platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube “optimize for engagement.” They make automatic, algorithmic recommendations for every bit of content or action, prioritizing things that will get you to click, comment or share.

They know what will catch and keep your attention. They know what will be more likely to lead you deeper into the rabbit hole, and what will make it harder to climb back out.

Hate, conflict, schadenfreude and shame make these tech giants money. We are all just hamsters running on wheels deep inside of giant, hyper-engineered, artificially intelligent, fully gamified, corporate-controlled virtual worlds that we think belong to us.

They won’t fix it. It’s working just fine for them. It’s up to us to get off the hamster wheel, or at least build a better one.

Ryan Ozawa

Mililani

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