Do you think that the internet has been a net positive or net negative for society?

[tulipsandroses]

We bought our first home computer about 25 yrs ago. We only had dial up for the first few years. You can buy a home PC these days for as low as 200 bucks and everyone and has a computer in their pocket via their cell phone. Back then, it was over 2 thousand dollars for a home PC and cell phones were not popular.
The internet was not as robust. Then came DSL, a little bit more speed. I dabbled with Ebay, late 90's, early 2000s, Buying and selling stuff. Later on, I went back to school later in life. Thankful that I was able to keep a full time job, be a mom and still attend classes online. Over the years, despite all the negativity online, I've always thought the internet was a net positive.
Now I'm not so sure.
So many atrocities have happened because of lies spread online. Not just here, all over the world. The violence against the Rohingya because of lies on Facebook comes to mind.
What say you ?

[marble falls]

1. In twenty-five words or less?

[RussBLib]

2. jury is still out

...but it has become indispensable for so many things

[newdeal2]

3. Social media has been a big negative

The rest of the internet can stay.

[bucolic_frolic]

4. Everything has been quarter-sawn into money as humanity has been lost.

Money was the root motivation of every part of it.

[canetoad]

5. I agree with you

I've been using computers since the 80s and have seen a lot of changes, innovations and disasters. I loved cyberspace back in the day; now? Not so sure.

I don't think that the thuggish, cruel and ignorant among us should have an unrestricted platform to spread their views. But how do you stop it? Society is far past the simple Right or Left side of politics division. It's becoming a violent war played out IRL.

Edit to add K&R! Thoughtful post and I'm looking forward to some insightful replies.

[Celerity]

6. Social media (algorithmically driven for conflict & disinformation) + AI are the synergistic pillars of its malevolence.

They enable the annihilation of objective truth on an almost unimaginable scale, and with that destruction, totalitarianism steps into the vacuum, likely populating it with superstructures that will fulfil Orwell's prediction:

[Scrivener7]

7. Negative.

[surfered]

8. Not sure. How did Talk Radio work out?

[Ping Tung]

9. Info-overload. Way too much hyperbole , click bait, competition, melodrama, and silliness.

A little learning is a dangerous thing; Drink deep, or taste not the Pierian spring: There shallow thoughts intoxicate the brain - Alexander Pope

[hatrack]

10. Substantially net-negative . . . .

The internet isn't going away, and does have obvious vital applications, but unregulated monopoly social media corporations are a cancer on humanity.

Fact-free interpretations of reality as a result of "doing your own research" are destroying our collective ability to even agree on what is real, or dangerous, or worthwhile.

A general shortening of attention spans is doing any of us any good either.

[dwayneb]

11. Not only negative it will bring the end of freedom as we have known it

There was only one purpose from the very beginning - and that was to use the Internet and information technology as a tool to enslave us. It will be the ultimate tool in the future for modern authoritarian regimes like the one we are witnessing here in the USA.

Track and control all of us all the time and feed us with propaganda. It is everything George Orwell imagined in 1984 and much much more.