I'll add some more thoughts on this, mainly relating to how the Internet affects irl group formation.
a) By off loading such a big part of our intelligence to the net there lies the danger of being unable to function as members of smaller groups in the same way people have more and more difficulty to survive off the grid.
b)The way the net handles cross group relationships: by creating safespaces so as to combat the net's inherent hate machine. This kind of alienation can carry on irl the more people rely on sanitized social media to form their opinions.
c)narcissim, as an anon put it, there are more photographers and attention whores than people actually interested in a group's activities.
Also I have been toying with the idea of parts of the Internet functioning as a behavioral sink. I searched a bit and found the following
> Freedman suggested a different conclusion, though. Moral decay resulted “not from density, but from excessive social interaction,” Ramsden explained. “Not all of Calhoun’s rats had gone berserk. Those who managed to control space led relatively normal lives.” Striking the right balance between privacy and community, Freedman argued, would reduce social pathology. It was the unwanted unavoidable social interaction that drove even fairly social creatures mad, he believed. Culture and upbringing also play key roles in adapting to environment, others suggested.
>Further studies of space design seemed to prove this. One such study compared students living in two different styles of college dormitory— corridor versus a suite style. Those in the corridor perceived the environment as crowded and exhibited increased stress levels. Those in the suite style, where the dormitory was partitioned into a series of separate communal areas, fared better, even though the level of density was similar, Ramsden said. “By comparing the two, [researchers] were able to provide evidence both of pathology and its amelioration through more effective design.
If social interaction is what results in a behavioral sink, can the InterPost too long. Click here to view the full text.