Twitter depends on advertising revenue, so they reward whatever keeps...

July 21, 2025 at 8:28 PM  ·  Comment — Chris Brunner's post  ·  View on Facebook  ·  Markdown source

Twitter depends on advertising revenue, so they reward whatever keeps eyeballs on the platform. Stupid, irrational, mean-spirited hot takes provoke anger, which in turn causes people to spend time on the site rebutting those takes. Same goes for Facebook. Substack, on the other hand, derives revenue from subscriptions. People typically only subscribe to people they really like, so the posts tend to be much more thoughtful, kind, and reasonable. So, if you want more upbeat posts, spend more time on Substack. Humans also have a systematic bias towards pessimism. Yet, by almost every objective measure (crime rates, poverty rates, war, etc) , humans are doing better now than they have at any time in history. Follow the Human Progress blog if you want more optimistic takes on humanity. https://www.facebook.com/HumanProgress.org