This might not be the right place for this, but it seemed appropriate to me.
I'm not sure about the fediverse in general. I've been interacting with it here and there for a while, and of course, since the strangeness on Reddit, I've been interacting with it more. But something seems... strange. What do I mean? Well, I'm not sure exactly, but let's see if I can put it into words.
I think the idea of the fediverse is excellent and truly better than a centralized approach. But, to me, much of the content on the fediverse seems different than the content on other centralized networks. Maybe Reddit content is more relevant and engaging to me because there is just more to choose from. Maybe that's just what you get when you have some algorithmic influence. I can hop on Reddit and find something interesting and enjoyable to engage with very quickly. But to me, it's just not the same on the fediverse. My guess is that my experience would be better with a far larger user base--maybe some critical mass of users needs to be achieved or something.
I suppose the lack of users could be an appeal rather than a drawback--a community could form that's tighter and more engaged. But what's the point, then? Is it simply meaningful human connection? For some, might it be to have intellectual stimulation that we can't get with the people around us? But this just shows what I mean: the experience in the fediverse, to me, is an altogether different one than on the centralized platforms we are running away from.
My purpose for going to Reddit wasn't a sense of community or anything like that. Maybe it was for some of you! I just wanted to find and engage with interesting stuff, and that's definitely more challenging for me in the fediverse. For now.
What are your thoughts? It could just be me!
The algorithm is something with positives and negatives. It'll try to show you stuff you're interested in, and so it can be more time effective and interesting, but it's also insidious.
Fediverse software isn't addictive in a skinner box sense. It just kinda shows what people have posted, maybe with some weighting for votes on Lemmy. That's probably healthier in the long run
I don't know--I wouldn't call my use of Reddit unhealthy. It was always easy to use and it always had a place for me that never got out of hand. Now YouTube on the other hand... that gets out of hand real quick.
I'm mostly speaking of my own experience. Getting out of the algorithmic world was really nice. I saw a lot more stuff, and realized I didn't really care about a lot of it and that was an important lesson too.