Strong disagree; institutions are broadly awful at community and at generating happiness. This appears to be a social technology we have disimproved upon in recent years.
There are times/places/scenes/friend groups/networks/etc on the Internet which are *magic.*
There are times/places/scenes/friend groups/networks/etc on the Internet which are *magic.*
Hacker News, which is an example people often use to indict the Internet, has directly contributed far more to my present happiness and circle of friends than e.g. my university did.
It has its fair share of problems, too, but because Internet we take it so much less seriously.
It has its fair share of problems, too, but because Internet we take it so much less seriously.
Taking it seriously: consider HN versus a university of your choice. Here, let’s take Harvard. Harvard clearly does some good in the world and has its share of problems. We tend to credit only one of those two factors for HN because of a disbelief the Internet could do the other.
