Obviously, the internet has always been a toxic place, (the phrase “flame war” has been around for decades,) but it seems to have gotten so much worse over the last few years. I used to think decentralization of the internet would fix the worst of it, but Lemmy seems to have gotten worse alongside the rest of internet culture, proving me wrong. How do we fix/improve this culture of toxicity?
You can’t.
‘Medium is the message.’ There are inherent limitations to the formats of social media and the way people interact with it. Text stores well for social media companies, but acts as a brutal limitation of social interaction. There is a self-selection issue for the kind of people who end up spending significant amounts of time online. There is a selection pressure created by the business model of social media. Anonymity is politically important but socially toxic. There is a problem of cultural inertia in changing anything about any of these things, even within the limits of their structures. All of these things interact with other external forces in complex ways.
All you can do is try to make your little part of things better. Help those you come into contact with. If you can, help them also to try to be a good influence on others. The earth is too big to affect all at once. You will never move it. But you can move someone near you.