This is something that's quite fascinating to me. The unfettered access to social platforms with few limitations on speech and content today, and available to such a large audience, would be unimaginable 70 years ago. Society and individuals are evermore connected to each other en masse than they ever have been in the past. An individual's discomfort now stems from everyone suddenly being aware of everyone else's opinion and now has to face it and interpret it. It would be next to impossible for someone 70 years ago to be able to collect that information at scale so readily, also making it far easier to ignore. Now all I have to do today is scroll through someone's SOCIAL_NETWORK profile to find out or to experience it.
It begs an interesting question to me whether society is more "stable" with this strife of being hyperconnected, or less stable. The past was filled with far more silos of in-person clubs representing political ideals, making it hard for the common person to recognize their existence, at least to the extent of hearing about its minute details and ideals. There was also a great filter of the powerful individuals controlling the means of communication to limit the content that reached every single person.
Despite the real acts or false claims of suppression, it is interesting that there was never a previous time in the past where each individual was more empowered to be heard than today.
It begs an interesting question to me whether society is more "stable" with this strife of being hyperconnected, or less stable. The past was filled with far more silos of in-person clubs representing political ideals, making it hard for the common person to recognize their existence, at least to the extent of hearing about its minute details and ideals. There was also a great filter of the powerful individuals controlling the means of communication to limit the content that reached every single person.
Despite the real acts or false claims of suppression, it is interesting that there was never a previous time in the past where each individual was more empowered to be heard than today.