In the old days, it felt like the internet had better means to engender radical changes or Manchurian awakenings in its users. Reading the internet then, there was a constant threatening presence just out of view which promised to expose to you a world you knew must be real but still refused to believe in. A website like Rotten.com, for instance, could leave an unforgettable mark on not only its readers, but those irradiated by its indirect influence. Like taking a wrong turn walking home as a child, the terror or the threat of terror not only helped you to better understand not just what you ought to be doing, but the context for why that is to begin with. I did not want to look at shock sites as a kid, but I knew that they existed, and this made me cynical and suspicious of everything else around me. I don't know if pure cynicism is healthy, but I must believe that it is the first step to any healthy relationship with media at large.
As others have said, today's internet is a walled garden, but the inside of the garden is much worse than the outside. "Trustworthy" websites like Facebook, Twitter, Google, etc, in all likelihood host far more child pornography, murder, torture, and rape than any underground network in history, and far more openly to boot. To the users of these websites, however, this is utterly inconsequential. The website provides a service which they enjoy, and any unsightly or prurient or wrong content must simply be there by accident rather than by design. Besides, they aren't the ones looking at that sort of thing, so what do they have to fear? Of course, this ignores the surface level problems of these websites--the open usury, the dehumanization, the commodification of disgust--which lay every brick and charter every law. These too must be some accident, or else a necessary and unavoidable reality to partake in such lovely services. Surely. So they trot along in lazy circles, chasing nothing while running to nowhere, content as ever that they have such a beautiful garden to enjoy while the canker poisons the roses and pisses in their bedclothes.
The best model for the world, I think, is the carnival. Everything in the carnival is designed, ultimately, to rob you. The games are rigged, the rides are dangerous, and the panthers only ever run circuits in their cages. Most people do not care about this, because the carnival is fun, even if only (literally and figuratively) at their expense. They give their money voluntarily so they can experience the pleasure of being used.