How to ST*U: The Internet Didn’t Make Us Stupid. It Just Removed the Speed Limit.
The internet didn’t invent human stupidity, tribalism, or our irresistible desire to tell someone they’re an idiot. Those features came preinstalled in our carbon-based brains.
Social media simply changed the rules, removed the social consequences, and discovered how to monetize our outrage. We’ve built a multibillion-dollar industry around exploiting instincts that civilization spent thousands of years teaching us to control.
Our grandparents called it manners. Today, we call it engagement. And while everyone blames the technology, perhaps the real problem is that our prehistoric brains are still running outdated software—and somebody figured out how to make a fortune selling us the bugs.