: The (alleged) Information Superhighway is like any other big highway. It's congested, dirty, brimming with impatience, sloppiness, and anger, and ill-maintained. The errant but predictable stupidity of the ever-too-optimistic about it in the late '80s and the'90s was, of course, that they mistook volume of information with quality of information, not to mention colossally overestimated the average person and as colossaly underestimated human nature.
Running a BBS, pre-internet, made me realize how stupid people could be, but it was like driving back roads. These were locals and you ran the risk of meeting them in person, so they tended to be somewhat more civil. In general. It was also less peoply. Easier to avoid the trouble spots.
Internet & social media especially put me into more direct contact with stupid + aggressive. Definitely more like being in congested interstate traffic.
CoSo is more like those early days.