I'll try to be concise, since the last time I tried to type something about this, it just ended up being a rambling wall of text, but I genuinely believe the modern internet is the biggest psyop, propaganda tool, and data collection and selling scheme in american history, if not human history, designed and steered toward making everybody numb and obediently addicted to it and its homogenized nature where each main site is a barely functional but endlessly scrolling dopamine dispenser owned by a rich guy where you're never given time to think because you have to deal with a shitton of ads that would put even the seediest websites of the 2000s to shame, and everything you see is being controlled by an emotionless algorithm, that assuming isn't being carefully directed behind the scenes, which it definitely is, is meant to erratically shuffle you around to the latest nothingburger trend, hot and fresh, that you either forget about in a week, or you use it as ammunition for an artificially inflated culture war then forget about it in TWO weeks.
They've been making somewhat subtle moves, but when covid hit and the American masses had to sit inside with little to do, they went balls deep with the plan, can't let them sit around thinking too much, after all, with Flash being shutdown around this time, clearing out a humongous portion of internet culture for "security", the near abandonment of cable for websites and streaming services that replicate all the worst parts of cable, and phasing out of physical media until things like DVDs start to border on the brink of antiquity. And even with the quarantines being a thing of the past, they've been emboldened and aren't slowing down anytime soon.
Putting a cellphone in pretty much everyone's pocket also helped with this, with devices that are always connected to the internet, listening in on your conversations to hand select the best ad for you, I'm sure everyone's had a conversation about a specific product, and just "conveniently" saw the same product advertised to them specifically the next time they opened Youtube or something.
And don't even get me started with AI slop pretty much RAVAGING google images and search, intentionally blurring the line between truth and algorithim-fed misinformation spawned from cannibalizing OTHER misinformation.