The internet hasn't made the world worse, it has just made the world transparent. There have always been approximately the same number of arseholes and idiots, but now they have unfettered access to a global audience. As any teacher or nightclub bouncer knows, it only takes a few idiots to spoil things for everyone else.
The only cure is a return to elitism and snobbishness. This place is only halfway tolerable because it has a small user base and trigger-happy mods who will happily ban people simply for being thick or lazy. Social media has an open door policy, but we need more online communities that are run like a gentlemen's club, with membership criteria and strict rules of decorum.
The problem is the ease of access. Make internet dialup again and the number of twitter contributors typing "<politician> is bad because <popular comedian joke> LOL" goes down tenfold. Mass anything is bad, the internet is just the worst example of it.
