Hi Keving,
I have the same thought as yours on the risk and rewards of public communications. I do think that privacy infringement is one of the biggest shortcomings of public communications. More and more applications and platforms require people’s phone numbers or even identity numbers (in China) to certify who you are. I was wondering if there is no such a policy, there will be so much spam and fraud because of an increasing number of fake accounts. Therefore, I think privacy reduction is inevitable.
As you pointed out, public communications make learning and accessing information easily. Thus, I believe that social media will continuously develop as a strong learning tool after Covid-19.