There's a part in this essay where Simon actually blames a lot of the negative things these days on the big public feeds. But I'd actually say that this is probably a wrong conclusion. I think there are other very big mechanical things at play in the world, e.g., demographics, migration, fiscal realities, that have way bigger impact on how people in those societies feel than public feeds.

E.g. Germany's economic decline was somewhat inevitable given its demographics and no Facebook or other platform should be blamed for this. It's been mostly a mechanical thing that just played out the way it was always predicted to. I think the polarization that we see e.g. on feeds about this issue is a symptom (again, practically inevitable) with people feeling the decline in their own lifes and voicing concerns and frustrations online. The polarizations are visible on the feeds, but they happen because the system is in decline, not because the people have been driven mad by the feed.