The Internet and social media platforms are now obviously detrimental to collective goods, cooperative politics and sane public debate.
From here.
I’ve encountered this sentiment a lot recently, even from Ben Thompson. If you take out “the Internet,” it’s probably right. My vibe here is: “human culture can not handle everything, everywhere, all the time.” Some can - they turn it off - but most can’t.
See also “narrative schizophrenia”:
Today’s current events are mediated by platforms that incentivize users to frame the news as sensationally as possible, flattening life’s complexity into good and evil, massaging facts without institutional oversight, and forging an era of American life in which our political differences often look irreconcilable.