Agree, trolls sowing division among society are unquestionably everywhere, operating in countless way, some more direct, some more veiled. But why is it always russian trolls? Don’t you think that others have the motive and tools required to influence societal behavior in a way that aligns with their interests? And don’t you see how the very dismissing of opinions differing to one’s own as trolls is in itself keeping us separated?

Oh, but it did. It also made us lonelier, but not by our choice.

A technology is never inherently good or bad, it merely has potential. It’s about the human intents behind the application of those technologies.

For a while the Internet truly was a beautiful utopia, in many ways. It was a huge shift in our history, and yet so very human. It was pure, used for reaching out and taking in, sharing, connecting. A shared soul, or brain if you’d prefer. Then some other entities started establishing their presence, and they didn’t like that. They’d rather subvert those key purposes with their own, applying their resources and influence to mold the net, and with it, the people connected to it. They were quite capable and discreet, such that our collective cognition didn’t even notice all the novel ways it was being twisted.

But it doesn’t matter, because the Internet still is all those beautiful things it once was, and it can be so many more. Just look at this very random thread we’re on. A handful of people, from who knows where, each with their own crazy histories, each their own thoughts. Here, by chance or destiny, exchanging those brainwaves. That will never change. And that’s where the true potential of the Internet lies. Just like others used the Internet to do unprecedented things, we will too. As we have before.

Hoping is never wrong.