The polarisation of opinions is a nasty side effect of some filters: people going in the web to be in conflict will click/trust/consume less. They are more aware of potential lies.
Thus the algorithm must provide the best un trollesque experience possible.
For this, it is better to have people feel cumfy with people sharing same believes/opinions. This way the CPC diminishes bringing more ad conversions.
Do the experience on yourself: did you prefer to go to school where diversity was greater than in your actual probable IT job, or do you prefer going to a conference on «your favorite whatever tech» it is. I have used noSQL techs because I thought it was cool after a python conf while I was pretty much dubitative. And I should have kept my doubts they had solid grounds.
Basically, conference and school are the same ; people talking thinking they share something, except school is full of conflict because of diversity whereas conference feels amazing because you feel in communion and you are more receptive. (I loved every conf I attended in the beginning until something itched me (my nosql conversion)).
That is also the secret recipe of churches, sects, successful corporate cultures, modern musical tendency to be based on genre that are caricature of themselves, even meme ... polarisation of the mass in one direction and fervor and a feeling to share something common, making you feel more likely to embrace new paradigms.
What we should fear is not facebook, algorithm or even google: it is our on Nature to feel cumfortable in uniformity and avoid conflicts.
The side effects of the algorithms is just that it turns us people in fanatics because we are not able to deal with diversity anymore. It is the experience we all wish: PEACE, shared progress and experience!
However believe it or not, since we are not always right, we sometimes need to have painfully disagreeing opinions. (real life). But in our bubble of agreement, opponents get marginalized as pisse froid.
And I know the tendency is to fight/blame the trolls, but trolls are not the problem at hand. It is a growing tendency to prefer avoiding conflicts, and I am concerned, only for one reason: it makes crappy software. Regarding politics, I don't really care that a globally skewed system towards the person rich by birth is getting unstable.
They wanted the power, no one was concerned since everyone was thinking it was a great idea: now they have it and I just grab my popcorn and sit.
The world can burn, I will rejoice myself with it but I did not bring the oil nor scratched the match that set it on fire. I am innocent, I was just a troll doing my job of trying to wake up people on the dangers coming...
One day us trolls will be given a medal for trying to save the world. Or maybe, I am still trolling...