America has never been a flawless state, but since the Civil War, the majority of people have bought into the notion of the country and supported the institutions that keep it working. People may disagree on politics and culture, but when America was endangered, whether by 9/11 or World War II, they banded together to fight for the country they love, even if their motivations differed.
However, it would be naïve to assume that feeling remains as strong as it once was. Since the Great Recession, many individuals have felt that the vibes in America are wrong, and surveys and studies back this up. Around 2012, when cellphones were widely available, there was a significant increase in the proportion of people who believed that America was on the wrong track and that racism and sexism were far worse than they had been the year before. There was also a significant increase in mental disease.
So, what happened in 2012? Did the world suddenly become significantly worse overnight, or had our perspectives shifted?
Why does it feel like America is in decline?
Similar cultural upheavals have affected other rich countries since 2012, but America has suffered the most. Economics blogger Noah Smith explains why this sense of melancholy has hit America so hard, and he depicts it wonderfully in a popular Substack post titled “Social media destroyed one of America’s key advantages.” Smith is an American blogger and commenter on economics and current affairs, as well as a former Stony Brook University assistant professor of behavioral finance.
In his Substack piece, Smith contends that the technological revolution affected America the hardest because it pierced our geographical barriers. “A hippie in Oakland and a redneck in the suburbs of Houston both fundamentally felt that they were part of the same unified nation; that nation looked very different to people in each place,” according to Smith. “Californians thought America was California, and Texans thought America was Texas, and this generally allowed America to function.”
Why did America undergo major transformation in 2012?
This is an extract from Smith’s article. Please read the complete essay on the Noahpinion Substack.
Social media, like a forceful hive mind from science fiction, placed every American in one little room with every other American. Decades of hard labor spent running away from each other and constructing our ideologically fractured patchwork of geographies vanished overnight, as geography ceased to influence everyday political and cultural debates.
The rapid breakdown of regional sorting in political debate brought all Americans in the same room together—and, like the protagonists in Sartre’s No Exit, they realized that “Hell is other people.” Conservatives recently learned that many Americans dislike Christianity or resent White people for the heritage of oppression. Liberals quickly realized that many of their compatriots frown on their lives. Every progressive college student has access to every piece of right-wing false news that their grandparents were posting on Facebook (which was previously limited to chain emails). Every conservative in a small town witnessed Twitter activists insulting White folks. And so forth.
When I look out at America’s social divisions, I can’t help but blame social media for killing our ability to spread out. https://t.co/cDnbMezYFJ
— Noah Smith 🐇 (@Noahpinion) June 13, 2025
It may sound cynical to suggest that America was a better place when individuals were less likely to interact with others who had opposing viewpoints. However, based on the events of the past 15 years, it’s reasonable to conclude that placing every American in a symbolic conflict only intensifies feelings of oppression and an ongoing struggle.
The Problem with the Like Button
Another event around the same time that many believe negatively impacted the country was the introduction of the Facebook Like button. The button debuted in 2009, and it, along with the share button, which appeared in 2010, encouraged users to generate material that their audience agreed with, resulting in echo chambers. The buttons also encouraged users to publish provocative content and make up phony tales in order to become viral and boost advertising income.
The positive takeaway from Smith’s geographical sorting theory is that many people’s perceptions of life in America are likely incorrect because we are viewing it through the distorted funhouse mirror of social media, which shows us every bad deed in a country of 330 million people and amplifies the voices of the unscrupulous. By pinpointing the period when America “went to hell,” as author Jonathan Haidt puts it, we have a road map for returning to a time when people had more trust in America’s institutions and individuals.