I wonder why the widespread adoption of the internet hasn't been good for society as a whole.

The internet was some objective good. Problem is, the infrastructure has been privatised, the Level 1 ISPs have a legally enforced monopoly and the services on the internet have been re-centralised. It is not about the internet, it is about what people have done to it.

Edit: typo

The internet amplifies society.
If the internet is shit...

On the whole, I would argue it has been.

Social media, on the other hand, fuck no. But the internet in general absolutely.

Knowledge sharing and research are amazingly easy now. Things that would have taken going to a library and possibly ordering 2 or 3 hard to find books, maybe several long distance phone calls, all to get 30 year old info, are now replaced by digitized records and some dude's website.

Access to scientific research is shockingly easy now. You're seconds away from reading up to the minute research on anything.

International standards also help. I can use my credit card anywhere on earth. Translate speech and text in real time. Email anyone anywhere. I can learn when the common scams are in a place before I go there. It helps make connecting with people possible anywhere.

People complain that "google has turned to shit". But the best part of their search offering, scholar.google.com, is still as amazing as ever.
- Google hasn't remembered it exists yet. Don't remind them.
- Google search is total shit because spammers figured out how to SEO their way into results.
Myspace was fine... Facebook fucked humanity up without consent. Facebook killed the idea of the Internet being a cyber world of freedom. Before Facebook the Internet was handles, usernames and the idea that it was all NOT real. After Facebook everything became assumed to be reality. Like it flipped a switch to the Internet becoming viewed as reality.
- Facebook actually did start off that way if you'll recall, and you don't have to use your real name on FB still. I was sad when my friend's dog's profile got deleted for very obviously being a dog. I hated FB from the start, and it was around 2010ish is when they started to get too serious about themselves.
- a/s/l?
No.
People rarely go on the internet to find data; they go on the internet to find data that tells them they are already right.
- No.
  Search engines exist and tell people how to spell things, simple math, and get them to things like recipes and wiki pages.
  Top Google search right now in the US is emmy winners. That's a search for information, not conformation bias.
  People also can't seek confirmation bias of they don't know where to start.
  Why confidently start of a comment with "No" and gamble with absolute when that's a net losing tactic over the long run?
The real question is whether the benefit of better access to scientific research offsets the detriment of social media. Unfortunately, I think social media use is much, much more widespread, and is thus having a significantly stronger detrimental effect than scientific research access and every other benefit combined.
- It's really only just a few platforms that are more toxic than average. "Social media" includes things like WhatsApp and Signal, which are functionally similar enough to email threads that they don't compare to Twitter where everything is public-facing.

Before the printing press there was in person word of mouth, then came the printing press. The internet is a magnitude better than print at reaching folks. Reaching millions of people has been a boon to shysters, scammers and grifters. Good people don't go on the internet to incite, lie and grift - they don't have the disposition to be criminals. Criminals, on the other hand, see the internet as their golden opportunity and get right to their work of crime.

Dude, they don't even need the Internet anymore. They just tell lies wherever. Tell them enough and they stop being lies. That's how it works, right? If enough people believe the lie, it becomes the truth.

democratically elected truth (TM)
- Oh look it's Jerry, the zionist prick.
Have you seen Chernobyl (2019)? Because that speech is very similar to the opening scene.
- I should probably try going back to it. Saw the first episode and never went back to it.
I'm waiting to reach the threshold. One of these days I will be black.
You can lead with all new lines
If you believe in what you'd say
And life can be just as you make it
Believe the lie and it will all come true
Believe in every lie
You're never free to walk away
You should be free to go today
Believe the lie and it will all come true

No one would lie on the internet.

Anyway, if you want to make your cake light and fluffy, you should add 2 teaspoons of WD-40 for every cup of flour used.

Fully agree. My grandma used to add WD-40 to cakes all the time. Best cakes ever. If you want a good cake then add wd-40
Mmmm 7 layers

The weird thing is that that's always been the case. Only thing that changed last decade is the gullibility of the reader.

No, it was the widespread adoption of social media. People aren't more gullible you just started having non-technical in a space they dont understand and cannot behave responsibly in.
- It's marketed capitalistic abuse and rape of a technology, just like what happened to everything good that humans make.
- Bull, people are more gullible. Back when I was a kid, if you hear something on the street, you went and checked it. But on the internet, people accept shit as-is, because they like it and that's it. Fucking hell.

Are you sure about that?

Like I know you are going to point to the following:

Surveillance Capitalism
The rise of the Alt Right
Conspiracies
Social Media

But I would pin that more on capitalism than anything. The internet in my opinion has been a boon for society. For example...

Wikipedia has basically made the HitchHikers Guide to the Galaxy real.
Open Source Technology wouldn't exist as it is now without the internet.
There are entire businesses that wouldn't exist without the internet.
There are whole fandoms that wouldn't exist without the internet.
The internet has allowed for economic and political opportunities that just couldn't be a thing if it wasn't for the internet.
It's been a boon for collaboration, which I think it's humanity's biggest strength.

Do I think the internet has allowed for us to enter a cyberpunk hellscape? Yes. Do I think the internet has been a net negative for society? No!

The current interation has made it a tool for the authoritarian. Its a completely deliberate act by the authoritarian tech sector. They saw the power they wield and they harnessed it.
- But that's on us as people electing leaders. Authoritarians exist with or without the internet, and don't just show up one day with some cheat code to get into power. The internet didn't create any of this from scratch.
- And the people let it. I mean everyone talks about using the 2nd amendment and no one ever did.
  Any sane person saw all this shit.. and by sane I don't even mean educated... Like you can be "dumb" and poor and understand all this is bullshit.
  It's like people are psychologically manipulated... And they are if you look into it.

Buster would definitely have shown up to the storm Area 51 event

Buster sold me a grenade. When I was in highschool. Arthur almost ratted, but we shook him up.
...

Hijacked by those with the biggest pockets.

Personally, I would never tell a lie on the internet. It's not really lying when I do it on purpose with the goal of obfuscating the details so as to preserve my anonymity and minimize the risk of being doxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxed. And also it's not really lying if I say it to win a debate and I actually win based on saying it. And it's also not a lie if its in .... "THE BIBLE" because it's what Jesus would have said and what Jesus would have wanted and I know for a fact you're not calling Jesus a liar are you?