The social media algorithms were definitely much different in 2014. They tended to promote links to outside articles and trending topics, even if those links were to BuzzFeed listicles. In 2015/16 they had all changed to trying to keep people engaged on the original site, so they started pushing rage bait that would get people arguing in the comments.

In 2014, everybody was talking about what color that dress was. In 2015, Breitbart was like the number 3 most popular shared “news” site on Facebook.