Comment by aleph_minus_one

> finding yourself in an echo chamber (by choice or not) online means that you may find yourself less comfortable talking with people you don't agree with, things like that. I grew up in a small town pre-social media, and that meant I didn't have much of a choice about who I was surrounded by. If I was growing up today, what would stop me from retreating to a comfy social media-mediated environment without any challenge or friction? [...] That world sounds terrifying to me.

One advantage of the new situation is that you collect less hate for people whose opinion you disagree with because you can mostly ignore them instead of having to get along with them - and with each interaction collecting another dose of hate for them and their opinion.