Why We Keep Seeing Stupid Things on Social Media: The Algorithm’s Choice and Human Psychology

Scrolling through social media often makes everyone feel like a journey through a digital circus. The bizarre, the shallow, and the outright ridiculous seems dominate every other knowledge based and creative content. This makes many people to wag their fingers, and even some of those people become social media influencers by criticizing the culture, or the person.

Let’s take a moment to understand why this happens.

The truth is, — I believe — “stupid content” is consumed very fast and very easily. Why? Because it’s designed to be. The algorithms that choose our feeds are not interested in delivering us deep, thought-provoking content — they’re designed to keep us engaged for as long as possible.

As Jaron Lanier, a pioneer in virtual reality, points out, “The algorithms are not designed to bring out the best in us. They’re designed to maximize engagement, and what maximizes engagement is not the deep, it’s the superficial.”

Consider this:

What do you think is more likely to catch someone’s eye after a long, stressful day — a complex analysis of geopolitical trends, or a 20-second video of someone dancing awkwardly to a catchy tune?