Social Media, and specifically Facebook / Meta, will go down in history as one of the worst developments in technology in the 21st century. As Frances Haugen stated in her testimony, Mark Zuckberg needs to be removed from the helm at Meta.

They started out good and then cranked the engagement trap to the max when they realize value of a captive audience.

I think television has done more harm, politically.

Radio did plenty of harm as well (especially post 1987). Rush Limbaugh had a peak audience of 20-30 million listeners a week in the 90s. The current state of politics might've been unpreventable, at least in the US.

Radio did plenty of harm in 1930s Germany - Hitler was a master of the new medium.