The internet is neutral.

Corporate social media is definitely toxic.

Can be, but is not inherently.

The algorithms are toxic. Negativity gets more engagement so the algorithms push that content more.

I don't. They're just tools.

Toxic people are toxic, and they'll still be toxic in different settings where they are interacting with other people.

The internet is fine, it's social media and the people using it that are toxic (aided by algorithms pushing people to give their own worst for all sorts of reasons)

I feel like that's the same as saying people are toxic or socialisation is toxic. Yes, toxicity can exist online, it can also exist in the supermarket, at school, in a field miles away from anywhere. It's just a facet of being with other humans.

There is one feature of the internet that inherently encourages toxicity, and that's the barrier anonymity grants between online actions and real life consequences.

In real life if you walk up to someone and start talking shit, you can experience consequences from that. Online, you can do something very similar and seldom suffer anything. This allows the internet to be used to vent bottled-up emotions that are otherwise difficult or problematic to express. It also gives young'uns a chance to fuck around without really getting in trouble for it, which can be somewhat intoxicating at that age.

These two factors contribute to an enhanced toxicity that would not be commonly seen just walking around some town somewhere. Most towns anyway. That said, it similarly depends on where you are online. Communities, both online and irl, are unique in their environments and cultures, so one should not expect standardized behavior beyond the very basics when going from place to place.

You get out of algorithms what you put into them.

My Facebook feed is full of web comics and memes. My twatter feed is full of information security because that is what I follow.

If someone is posting crap you don't like unfollow/unfriend them. Nothing says you have to have them on your feed.

Since I switched to fediverse, I am safe from toxicity of traditional social medias.

Not me. I think popular implementations of social media are, but they don't need to be.

Also the internet is definitely not toxic because it's basically a set of protocols that can be used for innumerable things that aren't social at all. For example: the experience of using ftp to transfer a file has never been toxic.

The internet itself by and large, will not be toxic. Do you just open your browser one day and you're faced with toxicity? No, you're not. You have the options as to where to go, what to watch, what or who to interact with. It has always been this way and will continue to be this way.

It's always been the people's choice to decide to be assholes to each other at a given. For their own amusement. For their own self-serving sense of purpose. For whatever reason that they feel they need to do it. I don't think social media began with the intent to get as out of control as it is right now. They all started as honest ideas with one thing in mind - connect people with people.

And they've succeeded. To regard social media as just toxic, is to imply that toxicity never existed online before they became more of a thing. Toxicity has long existed before them. They were in the chat rooms we frequented. They were on the messengers because of us allowing them to be on them. They were on the forums when allowed to register.

Problematic people has always been around and unfortunately, will continue to be around. It's just the volume of them has amplified ever since they realized the day that they can take advantage of what anonymity, little of big, that they have and practically get away with even making people kill themselves until cyber bullying laws were a thing because I'm pretty sure that has happened in the past as well.

The internet by itself is not toxic.

The people that use the internet are toxic.

The people that use the internet have made the internet toxic.

The internet got a reputation for being toxic.

Your average person doesn't even wanna bother anymore.

And I'm a person who always stands out from the crowd. Because I hate toxic.

If you thought it was, you need to ask yourself why you are here because Lemmy and Reddit are both forms of social media.

Properly moderated it doesn't have to be.

It's not inherently toxic but I'd argue the experience is a net-negative. Social media rewards all the bad and inflammatory behaviour that makes it so. The incentives are not aligned with being nice to each other.

One of the culprits in my mind are visible like counts. The ability to up- and downvote messages is a good one but the scores shouldn't be visible to anyone. Comments like "ACAB" or "eat the rich" bring zero value into the discussion but rather are just meant to fish likes from your own team and annoy the opposition. I doubt that removing that feature now would no longer solve the issue but it's one of the main things that trained us to act that way.

Personally I'm hoping for more powerful tools for curating our feeds. It's probably going to have to be AI based as I can't imagine how else you'd do that but on top of just simple word and domain filters (which even lemmy doesn't have) we need smart filters aswell that you could enable which filters out topics you don't like seeing. Kind of like with enough people using adblockers it would discourage ads-based bussines models and incentivices companies to come up with alternatives. With enough people using similar blockers for toxic content the people creating would quickly realize they're shouting into the void.

Only toxic people

It depends on the place, but sometimes a relaxing video helps.

The environment is toxic, pathogens are ubiquitous. Immune systems protect us from most pathogens, which only present a serious threat to the immunocompromised. The toxicity of the Internet and social media is indicative of compromised social immune systems.

Yes, grass is green and the sky is blue too.