The internet isn’t getting worse either

Over the past few years I’ve shared thoughts on how the world is much better than people think. Murder rates are down, reports of missing children are down, school shootings are down, the economy is doing great, etc. Things are far from perfect, and we always need to be working to make things even better, but it’s not too bad right now.

At the same time, I’ve essentially taken the angle that the internet is getting worse — but perhaps I was wrong about that. Maybe it’s just nostalgia for the “good old days”, but statistically the internet is still just as good (or bad?) as it’s always been.

Techdirt recently shared a great study with the title “ Persistent interaction patterns across social media platforms and over time “. Included in the study is this brief summary:

There’s something deeply unfashionable and counterintuitive about all of this. The suggestion that online platforms have not single-handedly poisoned public life is entirely out of step with the very political discourse the internet is said to have polluted.

Always this bad?

Put better was a post from Caitlin Dewey with the accurate summary title of “ Actually, the internet’s always been this bad “.