Also, the platforms simply have to do a better job of identifying and eradicating bots whose sole mission appears to be to inflame and harass. Yes, they target all sorts of users, but in some cases (and in the parochial terms of my beat) they’re aimed at journalists — either to sway them or to just attack them, in another affront on democracy’s fourth estate.

Don’t get me started on misinformation. I have too many columns ahead to fill on the topic.

What tech product are you personally obsessed with?

I’m going to cheat and talk about two. And it won’t be pretty.

Let’s start with Nest. The device — at least ours, which we got two years ago — has a mind of its own. At times, it makes me feel as if I’m in the “Jetsons” reboot episode in which the robots all turn against George. My wife and I are often away from our house for long periods, so we keep the heat low. The Nest allows us to warm it from afar hours ahead of time so we don’t come home to an icebox.

But then, for no apparent reason, the Nest will set the heat back to low when we’re in the house so it is suddenly freezing again. This has happened in exceedingly cold weather when there are pipes to worry about. The device is running on an algorithm that we can turn off — I get that (theoretically, at least; my m.o. with tech is to figure out the minimum that will serve my needs and leave it at that). And I’m sure there are other ways to fix it. The other day I hit up against a new and unforeseen problem — it went totally dead on me just as a cold snap kicked in. I forgot to pay the internet bill. I know one thing: My old thermostat was immune to my own idiocy, didn’t play games with me or jeopardize my plumbing and I didn’t need to pore through a manual to figure it out. We are giving it one more chance before we ditch it.