I think the internet has become for the most part toxic for a multitude of reasons. In fact I would go so far as to say that since people are growing up living vicariously through screens they are losing out on developing social skills. Which just leaves people isolated and lonely, because an emote hug does not have the same value as a genuine hug. The need for tactile contact is pretty extreme and I mean that on a biological level. A lot of media has also stunted direct interaction. Or made it easier to not take the risks involved in being uncomfortable, or being laughed at or rejected in public. Easier to hide behind a facade and talk about the blueberry muffin you ate. If you are not developing these skills you are pretty much condemning yourself to painful loneliness and awkwardness when forced into social situations. That then just reinforce how you can't handle social situations and why you should avoid them even more. Living a half life that is just satisfactory enough to keep you inside, but painful enough it is a chronic ache of emptiness, that is prodded painfully by looking at the joyful experiences of others on social media.
Loneliness kills. There is so much evidence on the toxic nature of loneliness I am surprised more effort is not made to treat loneliness like an impending heart attack…
I think it is worse than that because the internet is anonymous meaning every atrocity of sadism and cruelty can be inflicted and little happens in legal response. So the worst of humanity is fully on display and at work which can distort your world view of the decency of people. We live in a very switched on society where there is no break from the relentless updates and shifts in status and messages. So that bullying does not just stop at school, or work or, uni it follows you into your online world as well. This has factually driven people to suicide and is a growing problem. Bullying is already not effectively responded to in real life, even less so online.
The internet also feeds anxiety because of how media distorts reality to manipulate you for ad revenue, and fear sells better than positive stories and hope. Instead, force feeding you a terrifying world of countless rapists in the bushes and other bogeyman. I am really not surprised that anxiety is so high.
You are also having wider world views shut down because of various algorithms that quite literally stop you from seeing certain things, instead presenting to you what you like and what you already think. Creating walled gardens which are just entrenching tribalism. So things like hostility towards genders and vegan sausage rolls is higher. It also allows uninformed views to bloom unchallenged and wind up continually reinforced. I hold it responsible for the worsening depth of bigotry in its myriad of forms.
I feel like this is what Aldous Huxley was warning against. Solutions to tyranny and pain not being resolved because of the infinite availability of distraction. A distraction that I feel is making us more isolated and cut off than ever. A Skype call to your gran is not taking your gran to bingo and laughing with her in person as she steals your own card because you won.
My personal observation of clients who lived as shut-ins was they were not helped by mental health services, but by other services that led to finding friends, engaging with hobbies, and building confidence, and with that confidence came direction and purpose. Then they rarely graced my door again. Sadly I have seen the various programs that helped people outside of a hospital setting get closed down and therapies that specifically tackle Anxiety reduced to a skeletal joke.