The toxicity is seeping in from real life, and really popular social networks and media treatment of these is creating a feedback loop. The real problems are:

The toxicity is seeping in from real life, and really popular social networks and media treatment of these is creating a feedback loop. The real problems are: A) real life sucks unless you are part of the subset of the rich or have good support structures, B) toxic behaviors helps you get ahead in certain situations in life and people with low or no resources often resort to them, C) there's no cost to joining certain social networks so it attracts those with no resources and/or the lowest common denominator, including people who have been damaged by life and only know toxic behavior as a norm, D) people are interesting and useful when doing something productive or creative, but not otherwise. It's hard to say if the category of people who fall in C is increasing in absolute number or only due to popularity of certain social networks. Social networks that aren't dedicated toward doing something productive or creative, or who are open to everyone for free, will be overtaken by toxic behavior as a result. They should be avoided, or new ones developed in their place. Another factor is the downfall of respect for the news media in the US, this makes discussions of news events attract comments from the type of people in C as they think their opinions are more important than they should be.