As a consequence of your ancestors and mine having spent their lives living in small groups the Social Media world has great interest in Dunbar's Number.

Its been a concern long before the Internet however.

Authoritarianism's rise, which developed along with the move to organized agriculture from a hunter/gatherer existence thousands of years ago and persists in many places today, was due to:

Roots of the Social Network

We developed and in essential nature remain a social, small-group oriented species.* The majority of your ancestors and mine spent their lives relating to no more than a few hundred people. That's how it was from the time we were still in trees to the birth of agriculture. And for many it remains much that way today.                                       *see Dunbar's Number for more on natural human community size