Bearing in mind that I'm not American, and that I no longer live in America, I am fascinated that Americans always have 'influencers.' I grew up in a society that basically taught us not to be influenced. If I said to my mother "So and so said or did that,' the stock answer was, "If they jump into the fire, are you going to jump into the fire after them?"

When my headmistress wrote to my father to saying that I had objected to what a German teacher was teaching, he wrote to the headmistress and said that I must think for myself - then he sent me a copy of the letter.

I also don't understand fandom, etc.

The reason I mention this is that I have a question. Is it that technology is influencing people's opinions or is it just another medium? There was radio and TV before that.

I learnt to program (software) in 1975 and was on the web in 1994 when it had about 3000 sites. I will be 70 this year.