Social media is making us more opinionated but less informed

We scroll for hours every day, but how much of what we consume actually teaches us something new? I've noticed that social media doesn't really reward nuance. A complicated, well-reasoned take gets 12 likes. A hot, outraged one-liner gets 3,000 shares. So naturally, everyone starts writing hot, outraged one-liners. Including me, honestly. The algorithm isn't evil — it's just optimizing for engagement. But engagement and understanding are two completely different things. You can be deeply engaged with content that tells you nothing true about the world. The scary part is that we feel informed. We feel like we've done our research because we've seen 40 posts about a topic. But 40 posts from people who already agree with you isn't research — it's just a louder echo. I deleted Twitter/X for 3 months last year. I read more, argued less, and somehow felt more confident in my actual opinions — because they were mine, not ones I'd absorbed from my feed. Not saying everyone should quit. Just asking: when was the last time you genuinely changed your mind because of something you read online?