Damn this couldn't have come at a better time for me. I've been thinking a lot over the past months how it used to be that when you disagreed with someone, you'd still have something shared with them. Not quite the same as the social media aspect, but when TV was all broadcast on a few channels, you'd probably find a show in common. When the only news was national newspapers and broadcasters, you might both be reading the same paper but disagreeing on the articles. My thinking was going down the lines of "this meant everyone had a shared truth" which is kind of like the social media bubble that the research seems to disagree with, but also down the lines of "this meant everyone had, to an extent, a shared identity" at least within a large group like a country, linguistic or ethnic subdivision.
There was something special about the old internet. The idea that the acrimonious disagreements might have been less bitter due to their nature is tantalising. There's also something to bear in mind for Lemmy: the old internet, as much as the interest groups it spawned, was united by a shared interest in the internet specifically - and technology in general. The internet wasn't as necessary and ubiquitous, so most people there had to have some other motivation to be on it. That itself was a shared interest that allowed people to find commonality. Lemmy is the same: people here are a subsection of the internet, brought here because they're drawn to openness not provided by unfederated platforms. That is its own commanlity, and it won't exist if Lemmy outgrows those other platforms.
