I think that a significant part of what made internet worse is that social networks share individual articles.
If you need to go to the specific source of articles (like visit a specific website such as LessWrong, or buy a specific magazine), and after some time you notice that most of the content is bullshit, you stop visiting that source. And if someone recommends you something from that source, you will say no thanks.
But if the articles are shared individually, this reaction is suppressed. You may notice that it comes from a specific website, but instinctively it is “an article on the social network”. Also, now the articles you read are determined by what other people share, rather than what sources you visit.
To put it bluntly, you choice is to either visit Facebook or avoid Facebook. Once you visit Facebook, all the subsequent choices are made by Facebook. (The same for other social networks.) Not absolutely; you can do some customization on Facebook, but the website keep dragging you in certain direction. It changes the defaults. When you browse websites individually, the default action is “read nothing”. When you browse Facebook, the default action is “read whatever Facebook gives me”; to avoid a specific source you must take explicit action.
I think that a significant part of what made internet worse is that social networks share individual articles.
If you need to go to the specific source of articles (like visit a specific website such as LessWrong, or buy a specific magazine), and after some time you notice that most of the content is bullshit, you stop visiting that source. And if someone recommends you something from that source, you will say no thanks.
But if the articles are shared individually, this reaction is suppressed. You may notice that it comes from a specific website, but instinctively it is “an article on the social network”. Also, now the articles you read are determined by what other people share, rather than what sources you visit.
To put it bluntly, you choice is to either visit Facebook or avoid Facebook. Once you visit Facebook, all the subsequent choices are made by Facebook. (The same for other social networks.) Not absolutely; you can do some customization on Facebook, but the website keep dragging you in certain direction. It changes the defaults. When you browse websites individually, the default action is “read nothing”. When you browse Facebook, the default action is “read whatever Facebook gives me”; to avoid a specific source you must take explicit action.