all of this information is critical to understanding and empathizing with the people you might meet in your own society

No it’s not. I already know about the issue with police violence in the USA. I don’t need to be reminded about it with daily articles of such individual events. I also know what Elon Musk is like and I don’t need to read a new hit piece on him every time he says something stupid again and then go to the comment section to circle-jerk with all the other haters.

This is recreational outrage. Nobody gets more informed because of this masochism. They just get more angry and cynical. It’s objectively making the world a worse place. Some old granny without an internet access who goes to pick trash from the side of the road is having a bigger positive impact on the world than the vast majority of people posting and reacting to these rage-bait articles.