This is a semi-serious question - for those who were around long before the arrival of the internet, did you perceive as much polarization around you?
I remember growing up away from computers, where you'd meet people in person, and you would talk about things other than politics. Your opinions of these people would be dictated mainly by whether or not they were a jerk, and that was that. Where nowadays it feels like the internet has made the world far more political and polarized. Your political leaning, or the party you support, has become a heuristic on which others judge you. If you don't believe the right things, or say the right things, you are a bad person.
And with such an abundance of information coming at us, it also feels like many of us have gone into panic mode - the world needs fixing, and I need to do something. Every day is a battle with an ambiguous other that is the source of all of our problems.
Was life really that different before the internet? It's starting to feel that way.
I remember growing up away from computers, where you'd meet people in person, and you would talk about things other than politics. Your opinions of these people would be dictated mainly by whether or not they were a jerk, and that was that. Where nowadays it feels like the internet has made the world far more political and polarized. Your political leaning, or the party you support, has become a heuristic on which others judge you. If you don't believe the right things, or say the right things, you are a bad person.
And with such an abundance of information coming at us, it also feels like many of us have gone into panic mode - the world needs fixing, and I need to do something. Every day is a battle with an ambiguous other that is the source of all of our problems.
Was life really that different before the internet? It's starting to feel that way.