I was not young when the internet came to life.

Everybody expected it would be a great thing because technology would finally allow us to communicate better. It did not happen. The internet is not broken; it is us. We need the resolve to use that wonderful technology to talk candidly to others about things that are hard to talk about.

I stick with Medium because, among all social media platforms, in its format, it is the most suitable place to conduct difficult conversations.

Here, we have a long format that allows us to present complex problems entirely.

Written text is better than podcasts because it allows recipients to consume it at a personal pace.

As the Russian saying goes, “что напишешь пером, не вырубишь топором,” what you write with a pen cannot be cut out with an axe.

We have authors presenting a broad spectrum of views on immigration, health care, inflation, political impasse, misinformation, and wars in Ukraine and Gaza – to mention a few existential problems.

People feel manipulated by the media. It means there is an unsatisfied desire to learn. Let us be candid; not everyone cares about learning more. But judging from people’s involvement in politics, it is between 5% during quiet times and up to 20% during hot elections. Those who learn make the world a better place.

How do people learn? Not by being lectured. The most time-effective learning method is following debates between people with different views. We do not have authentic debates because legacy media operators dismiss certain facts and reasoning. The open format of Medium allows reasonable arguments that one never could hear or read in mainstream media outlets to come to light.

To fix the internet, we need to learn to use it to its best.