I don't think the problem is with social media. I think the problem is the competence of the average person.

How many communities start out full of reasonable, productive discourse, like HN, and then go downhill once they become popular? How many endless summers has the internet suffered?

Mediocrity is the enemy of progress.

Edit: I also take strong offense to the nonsense that the desire to aggregate knowledge began with the Islamic Golden Age. People have been centralizing knowledge for far longer than Islam has existed[1]. Frankly, the inclusion of Islam in this article comes off as forced and unnecessary. It doesn't surprise me that the author is from Iran, although his wikipedia page doesn't list any information regarding religion...

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_libraries_in_the_ancie...