Aside: I've been reminding people for years that "they" is plural; why do I have to do the same with "media?" Media is the plural of medium, where you originate your writing, Steve. What's next? "People is?" Not aimed at Steve, most people do this.

Repeat after me. Media are. Media are. Social media are. I mean, we aren't talking about complex declensions here (English doesn't have them) or reflexive verbs. We're talking about singular and plural.

There is no doubt that social media are harmful. They encourage hyperfactionalization. Yes, there was racial animus before Facebook but nothing validates a racist like seeing himself as part of a movement, something that was hard to maintain when racists had to be face to face with their fellow bigots and could see that they were a mob of losers.

Triviality reminder: there are almost no emotional controls online. You don't get facial expressions and you can shut out disagreement with a click (we all do it; no "they/them" in my browser). The MAGAts are on pages I never see and they don't see any caring sentiment.

The attempted insurrection on the Brazilian seat of government was organized on Facebook; TikTok is so aggressively shallow that unpopular kids commit suicide from it; Twitter is a cesspool of hate speech. It gave Trump a platform of stochastic assassination and his removal from it elevated dialog.

I got off Twitter a month ago; unable to find the willpower I did some posts I knew would get me banned. It was good for my emotional health.

There's probably no putting the genie back in the bottle but at least these media could be regulated.

Oh, wait. "Free speech."