In most ways, the total all human social karma is a zero-sum game. But human emotions are not.
The internet, by enabling and often rewarding a lot of nasty behavior - while "stealing" so much attention from the real world - is pretty plausibly a big net negative for human society. Especially on the emotions side.
(But since the set of people who are active on HN is fairly strongly biased toward the net "winners", plus those who want or hope to be winners, I don't expect these assertions to go over well here:)
The internet, by enabling and often rewarding a lot of nasty behavior - while "stealing" so much attention from the real world - is pretty plausibly a big net negative for human society. Especially on the emotions side.
(But since the set of people who are active on HN is fairly strongly biased toward the net "winners", plus those who want or hope to be winners, I don't expect these assertions to go over well here:)