Shame
Personal computers and the internet have created a perfect storm of privacy and isolation in the physical world. People can become interested in whatever topics they want, without being spied on by the prying eyes of the people they live in the same house with. These topics could range from deep rabbit holes of murder mysteries, or it could be something far more taboo, such as pornography. When people think that they have anonymity, they tend to do things completely unexpected of them.
Pornography or other sexualized forms of media are a major example of something that people tend to be ashamed about. It's not often that you'll find people having a genuine conversation about their porn interests. Porn usually only appears in conversation as the punchline of a joke or something mentioned purely for the shock factor, yet it is something that everyone has secretly had at least a passing interest in. To admit to that, though, is to make oneself vulnerable and expose the truth.
When taboo interest remain unsaid, shame begins to fester. Pornography has become something meant to be enjoyed alone on the internet, without anyone else knowing. People can obtain porn without interacting with another soul. There is an incomprehensible number of bytes storing the entire spectrum of human sexual interests on the internet, and all it takes to find it is a search query and a few clicks. It is the part of the internet that shall not be named, the part that everyone has accessed but no one admits to, unless it is a meme or a joke, but otherwise it shall be referred to not directly but in passing as an afterthought. The unmentionable obsession of the human mind.
This shame can begin to build walls between people. When someone can't express who they really are to the people, their family, around them, they become secluded, isolated. They dive deeper into their interest, developing it by themselves without the input of another soul. In that way, it is like a large language model training itself on its own output; an ouroboros of obsession. No one is there to limit the interest, to be the devil's advocate. Combined with anonymity, anything is possible.
Shame drives people to become entrenched; they keep to themselves this aspect of their life that they believe no one can know about. It festers within them, growing slowly over time, desperate to be let out. To even mention it to friends or family is painful, like trying to explain a word that has no definition in the dictionary. There is no cultural framework for expressing these deep interests that the internet has enabled.
Humans are not used to having anonymity. For so long, it was impossible to hide anything from our families or those close to us. Now we have the people close to us online and those close to us in real life. We can lead two completely different lives with separate interests and personas with either family being completely unaware. This bifurcation is infuriating and confusing to the human mind, both to the bifurcated and the outside observer. It subverts the cultural expectations of those in the real and creates an echo chamber for those in the digital.
I don't think it has to be this way. All humans have their secrets, their own little pieces of themselves that they don't tell anyone else. That is what makes a human individual; for us all to be a collective would be antithesis to the indomitable human spirit. There is no need to completely hide ourselves from each other. We are meant to nurture each other and create environments where shame is transformed into expression. Humans are meant to love each other, no matter their culture or strange obsessions. Shame thrives in seclusion, but esteem thrives in expression.