The phrase "Eternal September" was coined on usenet once ISPs opened the floodgates of users to what was once a small community. The "September" referring to the yearly influx of new freshmen gaining access via universities.
Average computer illiteracy across the entire internet population is down. I never got to experience the era of bulletin services, RSS feeds, emailing your friends, IRC.
Where's the tech bro internet? Where's the cool internet with the learning curve? Where am I??
I think people overall got smarter. It's just that the really smart people know exactly how to split the dumb people against the not as dumb people. intelligence doesn't necessarily affect your ability to fall into tribalism, it just changes the weak points.
