By Yuxi Xu
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What if social media is actually better at making us argue than bringing us together?
Social media was supposed to help us connect. But sometimes, if feels like the opposite is happening. My Hot Take is simple: social media does not just reflect social division – it rewards it.
Think about what makes you stop scrolling. Is it a calm discussion, or a video where two people are arguing? For me, it is usually the argument. Angry, controversial and emotional posts are much harder to ignore. They get comments, likes and shares, which means more attention for the platform.
And this is where things start to get messy.
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When we interact with a certain type of content, algorithms can show us more of the same. After seeing similar opinions again and again, we can start to think, “Everyone agrees with me”. Then we see someone with a completely different opinion and suddenly it feels like us versus them.
We can already see this issue in Australia. In June 2026, the Australian government announced stronger powers and higher penalties for social media companies that fail to keep under-16s off their platforms. The maximum penalty was proposed to increase from A$49.5 million to A$99 million (Jeuniewic 2026).
Protecting young people is important, but I think there is a bigger question: what are these platforms actually designed to promote?
A 2026 study published in Nature found that engagement – based feeds can increase exposure to emotional and polarizing content. It also found that changing how content was ranked could reduce polarizing content without reducing user engagement (Brady et al. 2026).
That makes me think the problem is not just that people have different opinions. The way platforms choose what we see can make those differences much bigger. I am not saying people should have fewer opinions. Social media should still allow people to disagree. But platforms should think twice before giving the angriest voices the biggest audience. Maybe the problem is not that we disagree. Maybe the problem is that social media rewards us for disagreeing loudly.
References
Brady, William J., et al. May 27, 2026. “Redesigning Algorithms to Intervene on Social Norm Misperceptions during a National Election”. Nature. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-026-10536-1
Jeuniewic, Lexie. June 27, 2026. “Labour Unveils New Powers, Penalties to Strengthen Social Media Ban for Under-16s”. ABC News. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-06-27/labor-unveils-powers-to-strengthen-social-media-ban/106851242
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