Has social networking been a net-positive for the world?

[dead0man]

allowing people who would never talk to talk is a good thing.  Keeping in touch with distant relatives and old friends is nice.  Or getting together with strangers who like the things you like and can spread information or discuss the thing.  These things would be impossible or at least slow and less user friendly without social networking.  People use these services everyday to do just those things.  Yes, many people use it to be assholes or spread lies (though I don't think people knowingly spread lies very often, what happens much more often is they spread false facts because they didn't verify the facts because the facts matched their preconceived thoughts on the issue.  If you think only Trumpies/right wingers are guilty of this I have a bridge to sell you), and some people use cars to drive into crowds, the state uses electricity to kill people, bad guys use guns to make doing violence easier, many thousands of people have died from fire, water has ruined countless things.


All good things have a dark side to them and they are all hated by some people in the first few decades of wide spread use.