Eh, none of the bookworms I know ever had drastic changes in their personality consistent with anxiety or depression, or somehow became angry and bitter after binge-reading a 6 book fantasy series. It just isn't a thing that happens.
I also don't think the internet itself—we didn't see this problem with blogs/wikipedia/trashy chain emails from your uncle.
It's the feeds. Because everything is tuned for engagement, if there's a type of content that's going to mess with your head in particular, the algorithm will find it and hammer you with it.
That might be a case of seeing it from the outside though. They are interacting with other people - the internet is only the conduit. It can be very negative to hang out with the wrong people whether it's physically or otherwise.
It's also possible that we're letting advertising algorithms push us around but one is not free from advertising in the unvirtual world either. There's a continual mental attack from every source that tells us we don't have "good enough" lives and must buy something or other to make them better.
> somehow became angry and bitter after binge-reading a 6 book fantasy series. It just isn't a thing that happens.
Some people will read the whole series when a new book comes out, sometimes in a single session. If there's something they really don't like in the last book, they might be bitter and angry.
I also don't think the internet itself—we didn't see this problem with blogs/wikipedia/trashy chain emails from your uncle.
It's the feeds. Because everything is tuned for engagement, if there's a type of content that's going to mess with your head in particular, the algorithm will find it and hammer you with it.