For centuries our species’ survival has depended on our developing a hyper-awareness to both environmental dangers and threats within our own “tribe.” Anything that reeks of a threat grabs our attention.

And in the battle for clicks, that becomes a huge problem. Manufactured threat existed well before social media (evening news shows routinely were advertised by ad bites saying things like “Hidden dangers in your child’s playground!!! Full story at six”) but now it permeates our lives.