Ahh, finally someone who thinks similarly! Yup, I agree 100% that the internet is nothing but a tool. You can use it to your advantage for so many things. Need help on a project? Internet's got it. Need advice? Got that too. Need to find a song? Got plenty of those as well. But of course you can use it to hurt yourself, too. Look up something that effects you the wrong way, post something embarrassing, do something dumb. As you said, it's a tool just as a hammer is. You can use it to hang pretty pictures, or bash your finger over and over again.
I would have to disagree when it comes to people saying that the internet is bad and terrible, because it's only bad and terrible if you make it that way. Nobody ever said you HAVE to put your information out there, it's entirely up to you. It's a tool for you to use- you're in control here, not the program.
Personally to me, people now-a-days are constantly using the internet to try and boost their ego- I mean, just look at Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube even. 99% of people I've run into and know who are on those medias and more, use those sites for a self esteem boost. Why? Because everything now-a-days is about status. That mindset has even crept into games like this, if I really want to go there. I want to believe that's because of the world today and how we're going about things, in my opinion. For Instagram, it's all about getting those likes, and getting a check beside your name. Facebook, again with the likes and shares. Some people get, what I like to call, a dopamine shot whenever they receive a like, comment, share, ext., when they get one of these small insignificant things. The reason I call it that, is because our brains tell our body to release the chemical within our bodies when we get something that makes us happy. Something so simple as a compliment can trigger this. So, whenever one would get a like, or a comment- and so forth, then our brains give itself a dopamine shot as a reward- or pleasure from getting said like. Thus why there's a craze over posting or getting online for some people. The same goes with getting a notification. That's why we hear phantom rings and dings, because our brains are looking for that signal. Pff quick biology lesson there oops XD
To be honest, as I see it, social media isn't the entire problem, but what people post on it that causes drama and whatnot. It's a pair, one has just as much blame as the other. For some reason, most people just can't sit down and have a conversation about something. Someone always has to be right or better. Back in the day, people could sit down and have a conversation, but now-a-days it's always a debate about something. I've met very few people who I can have a conversation with, rather than one of those spontaneous debates. Whatever happened to, y'know, agree to disagree, and not want to stab each other for it? We all have free will, and we can use it for good, just as much as we can for bad.
But that's just how I see it pff.