i m not against facebook , but no, the world was "more" connected before facebook and mobile (which i think both represent a shift in the way internet was used). People were connected in open pseudonymous platforms and engaging in continuous explorative mystery with each other, everyone, not just their friends. It's fair to say i haven't read radical ideas online in a decade, and a lot of the edgy stuff of the old internet has been censored / outlawed. Real names BS and phone numbers turned the internet to a phonebook.
> People were connected in open pseudonymous platforms and engaging in continuous explorative mystery with each other.
This also had the effect that most people were way more respectful towards each other because you didn't have an instant "ego comparison" trough shined up social media profiles.
Nowadays most discussions quickly turn ad-hominem because all the needed information is readily available: "You said this nasty thing 4 years ago! A horrible person like you can't have any valid opinions!".
Yet somehow to this day, some people keep peddling this myth that "anonymity breeds toxicity", when Facebook sits there as one of the biggest and most glaring counter-examples collective humanity could ever produce.
Imho the web was way nicer and more productive pre-social media mass adoption.
It was not pioneered by Facebook at all. Before the web was even a thing, there was a split between dialup BBSes. In my area it was WWIV vs. Wildcat.
The WWIV boards were all pseudonymous, open and welcoming. There was pretty much no discrimination there (because no one knew your gender, age, religion, skin color, or class unless you told them). They were typically run by a mix of ordinary people, including those who would be discriminated against in real life.
The Wildcat boards in my area were all real-name only, enter your address and phone number to register an account and the sysop will call to verify. Those were the ones who claimed to be more civil, but were rife with discrimination, bullying, and snobbery. They were typically run by the more wealthy and powerful, who never faced discrimination.
The early internet, with IRC, usenet, web forums, and even some way into the blog phase, seemed to have followed the WWIV path, and it was good. But then the wealthy and powerful wanted more control and more data to discriminate on, and they resurrected the old real-names policies.
