To spend time on social media is to be bombarded with craziness. The informational silos of social media seem to amp up weirdness, bad logic, conspiracy theories, crackpot ideas, extremism and hatred. But why? The information age was supposed to bring enlightenment, not psychosis. What happened?

What happened is a business model. The craziness within informational silos generates heavy cash flow. That's because extremism makes consumer engagement compelling. Engagement translates directly into advertising dollars. It's a cash cow. Unfortunately, the bizarre behavior and distorted logic are harmful both to the individuals involved and to society at large.

What's the engine at the heart of this cash machine? The informational silos of social media closely resemble the impoverished environment within animal cages. Barren environments encourage the development of repetitive, dysfunctional, abnormally persistent habits in animals of all species. Examples include the “stable vices” of stalled horses, the incessant pacing of large cats housed in zoos, and caged rodents’ incessant “wheel running.”

Such repetitive behaviors become entrenched, taking on a life of their own. These “parasitic habits” arise because animals cannot instantiate their inborn drives normally in environments too limited to support normal habits. We humans are not exempt from parasitic habits.

The weirdness of individuals trapped within social media bubbles resembles the parasitic habits of caged animals. Metaphorically, the repetitive habits resemble the screech you hear when you move a microphone too close to the speaker amplifying the sound.

In this podcast Deep Divers Mark and Jenna explain the dysfunction created by social media bubbles in a lively discussion based on Tom Whitehead’s upcoming book, Reimagining Psychology.