Both of these phenomena—rapidly sharing information and getting into arguments about it—were much more likely to happen after social media became popular. When teens discussed police shootings, climate change, or antigay discrimination in, say, 2005, those discussions were more likely to take place face-to-face, where negativity is less likely to get out of hand because the other person is right in front of you. But in the 2010s, emotions around political issues were whipped into a frenzy online in an environment that rewarded anger and negativity. Thus it might not be political conversations
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