I value the civilised discourse here on B&B but in general I agree that the Social Media, and the Internet in general, sometimes brings out the worst in people, or perhaps it reveals their true personality. Although there are clearly many huge positives to the Internet, I think they are outweighed by the negatives and the world would be a better place without it. I am increasingly disillusioned and dismayed with the Internet, and the aggression and division that I see there, and increasingly in real life. Still, there is no holding back 'progress'; maybe I am just a Luddite.
I used to really worry the internet brings out people’s true dark side. In reality I think it brings out a tribal side that’s an aspect of an absence of nonverbal cues we use when we are face to face. People say things to each other that they would never say face to face and so ( as an American ) to take a simple example, conservatives and liberals paint each other with the worst caricatures of each other and if we didn’t know better (as per another thread) we should all be stocking up on bullets and guns for the end of the world ( and there are a fair amount of politicians on both sides who know how to exploit that aggression and fear ). In reality, with rare exception, I have never met anyone who fits those caricatures and further most of us have far more in common - with our common humanity, sense of humor, work ethic, friendship, sense of fun, and inevitably shaving - than we have in what divides us.