Why are videogame communities so consistently toxic?

[codinghorror]

The telephone and the radio came close, but were much different. In his book The Rise and Fall of American Growth , Robert Gordon reminds us that as recently as the late 1800s, 75% of America was “rural,” with neither telephones or postal service. What happened a town over might as well have taken place on another planet. Phone and radio transformed the 20th century and cracked those barriers. But the phone was used to talk to people you effectively had an appointment to speak with, and the radio didn’t let you talk back to it.

What’s happened over the last 20 years – and especially the last 10 – has no historical precedent. The telephone eliminated the information gap between you and a distant relative, but the internet has closed the gap between you and literally every stranger in the world.

It’s a Big Thing. Perhaps the biggest thing since World War II.

I concur. Three Big Things: The Most Important Forces Shaping the World · Collab Fund