My Internet isn't toxic and depressing <i>because</i> I have a walled garden. I have curated my friends list and other feeds. Anybody posting more than a small fraction of hostility (even if it's stuff I agree with) gets muted.<p>They post stuff I'm likely to be interested in. Some of it is groups specifically designed to list light but interesting crap. I could go out and search for such things myself, but they provide sufficient entertainment.<p>A lot of people want their social media to be toxic and depressing. I assume they're getting what they want. The problem is that they go out and spread that toxicity to others. I can't help what they do out in The World, but I can ensure that they don't spread it to me online.<p>HN is the only site where I regularly meet toxic people, and I wish it had a feature to hide them from my feed. I go only because it also regularly points me to sites I find interesting. If the former outweighs the latter, I'm gone.