[ojl]

> the digitalization of everyday life took longer, whereas everyone and their dog in the US had a smartphone and social networks from day 0.

This very much depends on where in Europe you were living. In parts of the Nordics (at least Sweden and I think Finland as well) cell phones were very common already in the 90s, and a few years later smart phones as well. I don’t even remember when it wasn’t possible to handle taxes, banking and similar stuff with an app or online. We also had social networks but I guess most died when Facebook arrived here. The US are usually ahead of us in consumer products, but to say that all European countries are bad at all kinds of innovation is quite exaggerated.

[axegon_]

True but the mass adoption and flooding social media was far more gradual compared to the US still - all the big social media came out of the US really, so did all the massively centralized services. Computers in general have a steep learning curve so they are at large useless for remote rural areas in the US(in Europe you are never too far from a large city with universities and all the modern day creature comforts). Smartphones on the other hand are basic commodity with no entry barrier. 200 bucks and you have access to infinite and unfiltered information, which is what ultimately seems to have caused the issue: Across Europe(like mentioned before) we were all(and sadly still are) collectively playing catch up. And again - Nordics are all too familiar with how russia operates, whereas the US is still far from figuring it out. Hence the reason Europe is far more immune to it, although many are still falling victim. Europe also knows how to protest, which is still at large something the US has no clue about. Imagine if the leader of any large European country shamelessly pulls a pump and dump the way Trump did (twice as a matter of fact) this week. People in Europe pull out their pitchforks for infinitely less.