foamflower

epistemic status: 70%

I don't think Facebook killed our trust in media. I think it was Google. We have far less faith in institutional knowledge and the knowledge of our parents and other authority figures in our lives. Because why trust when you can find definitive answers online? Why have community when you can have answers? I think the previously high value of institutional knowledge bound groups of people together, and that now institutional knowledge is less valuable, so are communities. I think this is why hyper-specific niches continue to thrive, as well, since it's harder to find information on the respective subjects online.

The more people post in public, search-indexed forums, the faster communities die off.