These aren't mutually exclusive. I see the internet as mostly segmenting us into separate echo chambers that do not want to compromise. In the past, most people learned some degree of empathy because while they support policy X they also talk to their neighbor who hates policy X because of reasons A, B, and C. Now people will just ignore their neighbor who hates X and instead go online and find a community that builds their identity atop hating a bevy of policies that include X.

There's definitely pros to this as instead of having to hide things like your sexual orientation in your community due to bigotry you can go online and find others like you. There are also cons abound, where instead of (for example, not trying to push policy here) ranting about how nobody rides the bus and encountering your neighbor whose car broke down and is riding the bus you instead go online and talk to other people who think buses are stupid.