The extent to which we treat the internet as a neutral and accurate reflection of the world is really worrying

The simpler binary between online and irl that used to exist is much harder to separate now, and at the same time the content and expression that you see is much more algorithmically curated and vulnerable to manipulation. You can be aware of this on a conscious level, but if some part of you didn’t believe that the internet reflected reality then you wouldn’t find it compelling in the first place. Using a social media platform means looking at a series of posts that are deliberately arranged to make you envious, angry, distracted, insecure and confused and internalizing them as a faithful distillation or depiction of what the world is like right now.