The trouble with the internet, Mr. Williams says, is that it rewards extremes. Say you’re driving down the road and see a car crash. Of course you look. Everyone looks. The internet interprets behavior like this to mean everyone is asking for car crashes, so it tries to supply them.

The messaging about social media is so confusing. On one hand, it’s the domain of the embarrassingly anti-intellectual, attention-hungry, vain, stupid, trollish... Yet on the other hand, social media can also supposedly propel people to the presidency and shape an entire generation’s opinion on geopolitical issues. So what does it mean to advocate... See more