Oh believe me, I’m aware of the irony. I’m also aware of the vast differences of this site vs a Facebook, twitter, instagram.
Even notice how social media has affected online multiplayer, adventure, questing games. People used to play these even if they didn't care for the game so much, because it was a way to socialize and cure a sense of loneliness. Or meet people from across the planet, which was a novel experience to be exposed to different cultures.
Now with a dedicated social media, people aren't playing games to meet people like they used to... the players are far more task focused, and what used to be called strangers, aka potential friends, are now referred to as "randoms" with derision as if other players are just an inconvenience. There are still places for people to get together and play, but these are so inorganic, fairly similar to taking a class of some kind in real life to try and meet people. Before it was more like a "pick-up" game of hockey where you might make a friend. Or talking to somebody standing in line and making a friend. By pure circumstance.
I think social media has exposed us to so many humans at once, more than was ever possible in history. This overexposure has reduced how much we appreciate the people around us and the little connections we used to make with complete strangers. Experiments on mice showed that as the community's population increased, mice had less and less acts of empathy displayed for other mice. Now with the illusion of 1,000+ friends on social media, and youtuber friends and families, humans might be acting like those mice.
Forums like this one, I agree are different. We are anonymous. There is no weird competition for attention or whatever here. Sure there are trolls who act like a character out of a comedy, because they are bored, but I think it's a bit more silly than malicious when names are not involved.
