

It’s not social media per se. It’s capitalism. The Internet was this vast frontier, where you could meet anyone. Little communities formed, we all just talked, and self-regulated any bad behavior. It was a gift economy, we all freely shared knowledge, files, culture.
In the past 20 or so years, economies of scale took over. Corporations bought up the server space and aggressively shut down small communities. Community is discouraged, keep scrolling and click on the ads! Marketing killed the internet.
I predicted back in 2000 that the net would become a big complex system of cable channels, you pay for every site you visit. It’s sure AF going that way.
Something wonderful is gone forever. Thanks America.