I grew up in a suburb and pretty isolated intellectual vacuum where it was hard to learn anything. I got internet access I could use regularly when I was aroun

I grew up in a suburb and pretty isolated intellectual vacuum where it was hard to learn anything. I got internet access I could use regularly when I was around 12. Things were less developed then ~2002 and I didn't have FB until 2007 so maybe it's not directly comparable to the modern web, but the information access was amazing. There was so much available to read and learn and most importantly, it helped with unknown unknowns. When you're isolated like that and you don't live in a community of people that can introduce you to new things it's really hard to find where to even look on the map of interesting ideas. You don't know what exists. I wouldn't have been able to learn about computers, wouldn't have eventually been able to come out to the bay area as early as I did. I think people don't realize how the internet frees people that don't otherwise have a personal connection to someone who knows things. My case isn't even that exceptional (my dad is an MD and smart, he was just the first in his family to really succeed so didn't know how to navigate a lot of the social class stuff) - someone who truly grew up in poverty would have even less access to things via their personal network. At least for me, there is way more good with the web than bad. The web and internet access may drive most of humanity to tribal motivated reasoning and echo chambers, but for others it leads to better critical thinking, learning new ideas and arguments and changing your mind/becoming a better thinker. The upside potential is still there and huge - it's easier to learn than ever. It just didn't fix the fact that the average person is not well suited to take advantage of it.