OK, but what does that mean in terms of concrete action?

I think this tech is going to continue to make the world, on the whole, much worse both globally and personally. I'm not willing to just bend over and take it. So what's the real alternative?

Invest in your local community.

One sliver of optimism I have is that this era of social media rot can finally come to and end if enough people lose trust with online content.

Media has been compromised. Your neighbors are not AI and are probably not part of a billionaires influence campaign

That would be the first thing to do: stop buying stuff online. Entirely.