Probably the eras when it was feasible to regularly communicate with small groups of people outside of a few highly-centralized platforms.
At this point, there's a credible argument to be made that the Facebook empire is a sort of natural monopoly, like our public utilities. They need to be heavily regulated, split up into regional operators, and/or legislated out of existence.
You can communicate with small groups outside of a few central platforms. Stormfront remains alive. The incels have their own site as well.
You want the ability to communicate with everyone (tweeting is a message to the world) or if you aren't allowed to do that, for nobody to have that ability.
I'm talking about how you cannot effectively stay in touch with your neighbors and local community without using Facebook's platforms. People who you see every day, but who may not share all of your views; keeping up with those people is important if we want to heal our society's deep divides.
I've tried, but very few shared interest/volunteer/neighborhood groups will go out of their way to contact the one or two people who don't join their Facebook groups about scheduling or events.
It has nothing to do with racist or misogynist strawmen, but since you mention them, Facebook has done a lot to inflate those groups' ranks.
At this point, there's a credible argument to be made that the Facebook empire is a sort of natural monopoly, like our public utilities. They need to be heavily regulated, split up into regional operators, and/or legislated out of existence.