Yes, this. I remember BBSes and USENET and unfortunately I can remember instances of people being stupid and spreading nonsense then, too. I guess what was different is that there was no monetization yet and no one trying to amplify “engagement” by making people absolutely enraged. No algorithms pushing content at you, nothing was being curated by any corporation at all at that point.

I think it was introduced more slowly and so maybe many people had some time to get inoculated - but others definitely were not successfully inoculated - I cannot tell you how many friends, relatives, co-workers that joined up later would start forwarding the absolutely dumbest emails and after I’d try to explain to them it was total bullshit, they’d learn nothing.

I just think now kids are handed a tablet and/or a phone at extremely early ages and it’s not like they are easing into it, and having more of a ballast in “the analog world” as far as the amount of time spent on it; they are thrown into the deep end, with corporate interests seeking to maximize their engagement, no matter what the cost is to kids, society, our country, any of it. Now, trying to seek UNcurated content is something that someone has to even know is a thing and then actively seek out and nearly all “internet” use constitutes traffic to a few corporations, and nearly all interaction between humans is mediated by corporations.