The Internet’s Consequential Role in the Fragmentation of American Culture
Everyone is yelling, but nobody is listening
The internet hasn’t just changed how we live. It’s changed who we are—as individuals, as a country, and as a culture – and not necessarily for the better. What once connected us has become a swamp of despair, misinformation, and rage. Unless we correct course, our culture will be shattered forever, and we will lose what unites us.
Not too long ago, it was a place where people went to watch funny cat videos and funny shorts about animated unicorns trying to find their way to Candy Mountain. (Candy Mountain, Charlie!)
But it has since mutated into this hideous swamp creature made of human sewage and garbage with a mind of its own. If the internet were a physical location in today’s society, I’d imagine it would be an enclosed colosseum where millions and millions of people gather to scream at the top of their lungs to express rage and frustration. It would be louder than a Taylor Swift concert! No – louder than 100 Taylor Swift concerts!
There are no gatekeepers with the internet, so those who have traditionally not had a public voice now have a platform to express themselves. With smartphones, the barrier of entry to create content has never been lower.
Everyone has a podcast. Everyone is an influencer. Everyone has an opinion about literally everything.
That’s why one week, your Aunt Margaret, who teaches preschool, is suddenly a self-professed “expert” on the geopolitical significance of the Wakhan Corridor, and the next week, she’s lecturing you about tariffs – or whatever the talking heads on cable news are shouting about that day.
The stock market is crashing…Global trade is at risk… A recession is imminent…The drums of global war are beating…The sky is falling.
Thanks to the internet, we are inundated with fear-driven noise about things we can't control every second of every day. Yes, the stock market fell, but it went back up again. That’s quite literally how markets work. How is screaming about it on social media helping? And Aunt Margaret—do you even own stock?
On the internet, fear gets clicks. Outrage earns followers. And nuance dies in the algorithm.
Losing A Shared Culture and Truth
One of the reasons (I’m sure there are many) for this cultural phenomenon is that we no longer share a common culture. American culture is rotting from the inside out, and this fracturing is driven by the internet.
Everything from movies to TV shows to news is decentralized. When was the last time you sat down to watch a show live on network TV? I can’t even name a single prime-time program right now.
Even the news has become decentralized. At one point, three networks covered the events that those in power wanted the public to know about. It was a very centralized, top-down approach. There used to be two time slots: local and world. Now, we have a 24/7 news cycle where you can watch it whenever you want. Don’t like what you hear on one channel? Flip to another. There’s always another channel, podcast, or YouTube show that will tell you what you want to hear.
We don't just disagree on values; we can't even agree on the facts.
There is no objective truth, only power.
Normalizing Political Violence
The internet has not only fragmented our culture, it's begun to normalize something even darker: political violence.
In July 2024, Donald Trump, at the time the presumed Republican presidential nominee, was nearly assassinated at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. The reaction to this attack by the corporate press and even everyday people was appalling.
There were dozens – perhaps hundreds – of TikTok videos celebrating the attempt. But the one that comes to mind is when, just days after the attempt on Trump’s life, Tenacious D’s Jack Black sang Happy Birthday to his bandmate Kyle Gass during a live show in Sydney, Australia.
Kyle made his birthday wish: “Don’t miss Trump next time.” The crowd laughed.
They laughed.
Then, just a few weeks later, a man was caught on Trump’s golf course with a firearm, waiting for the “right time” to act. Thank God he was stopped.
And it didn't stop there.
In December, UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson was assassinated in broad daylight in New York City. Ever since this tragic incident, the alleged killer, whom I refuse to name in this article, has become a folk hero among some on the political left. Videos praising him have gone viral. Merchandise has been created depicting him as the Sacred Heart of Jesus. California has introduced a ballot measure and named it after him. Protesters even cosplay as the Nintendo character who shares his name.
Most disturbing of all, a Wisconsin teen reportedly affiliated with a satanic cult was recently arrested for allegedly murdering his parents so he would be able to “obtain the financial means” to assassinate the sitting President of the United States.
Something sinister is going on in our country right now. Just this year:
Tesla dealerships are being set on fire.
Someone published a website that doxed the names of private Tesla owners across the U.S., including the sitting Director of the FBI. (Let’s see how that works out for them.)
Many prominent conservative influencers have been swatted in the dead of night.
On top of this there seems to be a growing mental health crisis. Americans are more unhappy than ever. Grown women are paying thousands of dollars to go on “rage rituals,” and they are having public meltdowns on TikTok because they didn't get their way.
This is the state of modern American politics, where even the car you drive makes a political statement.
But what we are witnessing isn't just typical political polarization—we aren't arguing over tax policy anymore. This is clear spiritual warfare unfolding before our very eyes. The demons are working overtime to fill people's hearts with anger, violence, and nihilism. They are pushing our culture and country closer and closer to something we cannot come back from.
Amplified by the Algorithm
These assassination attempts—and those people who are openly cheering it on—are becoming more frequent. It’s shocking. It’s appalling. It’s despicable. It’s inconceivable! And it’s becoming normalized more and more in our culture. And they often come from people who share a similar political ideology.
At least that was the conclusion of a recent report by the Network Contagion Research Institute (NCRI), a "neutral and independent” organization whose mission is to “identify and forecast cyber-social threats and report on them in a timely fashion." According to the report, a growing number of people are willing to justify and even applaud the murder of public figures, like President Trump and Elon Musk, in the name of politics and a "warped sense of social justice."
As reported by Fox News:
“NCRI conducted a non-probability based nationally representative survey of more than 1,200 U.S. adults, weighted to reflect national census demographics. The findings were stark: Some 38% of respondents said it would be at least "somewhat justified" to murder Donald Trump, and 31% said the same about Elon Musk. When counting only left-leaning respondents, justification for killing Trump rose to 55% and Musk to 48%.”
This “assassination culture” is being amplified by the decentralized internet and propped up by social media algorithms. People who glorify violence—directly or indirectly—are rewarded through millions and millions of views from supporters and critics alike.
We can’t go on like this. It’s unsustainable. And it's getting worse.
No matter how you feel politically, murder, violence, and property destruction are wrong. And if you use these tactics as a weapon to gain political power, you are a terrorist. A country where one side of the populace glorifies and/or partakes in violence isn’t a country. How can it be if we seemingly don’t share the same morals anymore?
Picking up the Pieces
The solution to stitching our broken culture back together won't be found in a comment section or even a Substack essay.
We need a major cultural course correction. We need to log off from the swamp creature that feeds our rage and despair because it’s clearly poisoning our culture! Stop giving it power over us. Don’t be like my fictional Aunt Margaret, who constantly doom-scrolls on social media and is continuously inundated with hateful messaging. We need to reconnect to our families, our communities, and truth.
We need to make political violence reprehensible again.
It might seem like an impossible task. However, the best way to make a cultural impact is to start small. As Dr. Jordan Peterson says, "Clean your room. Make your bed."
We can't fix our culture overnight. But we can fix our homes. We can teach our kids what's true, what's right, and what's worth believing in. Because the only thing worse than a fragmented culture is a generation that doesn't know how to put the pieces back together.
As fathers, we are the leaders of our family unit. The buck stops with us. We have an obligation to teach our kids right from wrong. We must show them there is a higher purpose to life other than themselves. We must be present in our kids' lives. And we must teach them how to navigate this broken, deeply flawed world.
Hard times create strong men and, right now, our country—and our world—needs strong men if we are to put the pieces of our fragmented culture back together.
As the saying goes: "The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing."
What do you think? Can our culture be fixed? Let me know in the comments below👇.
About Dad Think
My name is Joe. I’m a dad, husband, writer, and podcaster. If you're new here, welcome! If you are a returning reader, it's great to have you back!
“Dad Think” is my corner of the internet. It's where I give my perspective on technology, society, and culture as a father. From artificial intelligence to social media and digital culture, I break down how the tech shaping our world affects parents, families, and future generations. And sometimes, I write about my funny experiences as a parent of two young kids.
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Joe