Comment by basilikum

You are right that a lot of people use social media for good things. The problem is that these usages are orthogonal to what these platforms are designed for and the reason why people use them for that anyway is mostly not for the value they provide but due to the network effects they have achieved though their market capture. On the technical side these are all long solved problems and many others could provide a platform for actually connecting real people. Facebook and etc. are parasitically absorbing this markets while actively undermining any healthy activity they platform.

> most people's relationship with social media is entirely mundane.

I think the engagement numbers of the social media platforms say something different. They wouldn't keep feeding everyone all that toxic stew if it didn't work with most people.

The large social media platforms are hostile to actual social activity.