You can often see people complaining about things like the fediverse, going "but how do I know what instance to use???" - and that's not specific to the fediverse, it occurs in many places.

What I think isn't discussed often enough is how this seems to be indicative of a much broader societal problem; people have become so accustomed to choices being made for them, that it seems like they have entirely lost the ability to navigate social spaces and conflicts.

This same problem reoccurs in other contexts; consider all the reporting about how people are growing increasingly lonely and don't know how to make social contacts, for example. Or how social organizing is at an all-time low in many places.

And again, the same thing in any discussion around conflicts in social circles; arguments go in endless circles and nothing ever gets talked out or resolved. Nobody ever takes accountability, empathy is generally missing.

It's like a lot of people have completely unlearned how to exist in, and take agency over their social spaces, in the span of what, two decades? Should this not be extremely worrying?

(Disclaimer: this is written from my perspective, based on the people and communities I interact with - that's not just nerds, but it probably also isn't going to be representative of the whole world, and I don't know where the exact boundaries are)