this post was submitted on 12 Jan 2024
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I've been on Reddit for over a decade. But I'm done with that site and want to do something else. What do normal people look at on their phones? Is it all social media? Streaming?

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[–] SpaceNoodle 132 points 11 months ago

I replaced it with Lemmy, so that's what an abnormal person does.

[–] toiletobserver 108 points 11 months ago (6 children)

https://text.npr.org/

It's a breath of fresh air in an otherwise chaotic Internet user interface.

[–] 200ok 10 points 11 months ago
[–] Lauchs 8 points 11 months ago

Oh that's fantastic, thanks for sharing!

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[–] [email protected] 81 points 11 months ago (1 children)

If by normal people you mean the general public, my guess is just Tiktok and social media.

[–] schmidtster 12 points 11 months ago (1 children)

But society says normal people aren’t supposed to be engrossed by their phones.

[–] [email protected] 27 points 11 months ago (1 children)

we shouldn't put toxins in our body either but it's really popular.

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[–] sarcasticsunrise 55 points 11 months ago

My amazing wife is normie/10, she watches usually TikTok cooking recipes or makeup videos. I'm trash man husbae, so I'm on Lemmy here with you

[–] [email protected] 43 points 11 months ago (3 children)

How the hell would any of us know?

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[–] [email protected] 41 points 11 months ago (2 children)

Around me I see people watching the videos that just keep coming. Next video before you even had time to form a thought about the last one. I don’t think you should follow their example.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 11 months ago (3 children)

It's weird! I sometimes look at teenagers browsing their phones on the grocery line and they're doing a ton of stuff while not actually doing anything. It's like they simply cant stand there alone with their thoughts for two minutes but need to just start opening random apps, scroll few times, switch to another app, like something, move again...

[–] [email protected] 11 points 11 months ago

If I don't distract, the demons rise up out of my subconscious and start chewing on my psyche. melancholy, ennui and existential dread follow leading to depression and suicidal ideation. Radical behavior, poor life choices are followed by death and a big mess reported on national news.

So...harm reduction!

[–] cascadingsymmetry 8 points 11 months ago

This was what people said about channel hopping back in the day.

This time the content is just made for people to channel hop at a faster rate.

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[–] [email protected] 13 points 11 months ago

It's absolutely terrifying how much content is pushed into their eyeballs so quickly. I think about how overwhelmed I was with Reddit, and even here sometimes, and this is a pretty slow feed that I get to control. Control. Having constant video shoved into my eyes- I just don't think that can be healthy

[–] [email protected] 41 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Why do you have to replace it?

Maybe use it as a way to cut down on screen time.

I have no socials on my phone. I mainly use it to listen to audiobooks/podcasts instead.

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[–] nycki 36 points 11 months ago

Advertisements.

[–] IndiBrony 33 points 11 months ago (1 children)
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[–] reversebananimals 31 points 11 months ago

I ride the public bus every day, and I can tell you its basically all social media, messaging, YouTube and phone/video calls.

But you don't have to do the same thing everyone else does. You can play digital card games, chess, read a book, or put your phone in your pocket and listen to podcasts or music. And if you're not commuting, you can plug your phone in and do actual stuff.

[–] [email protected] 25 points 11 months ago (7 children)

I feel like any time anyone is using their phones in public they're scrolling Instagram.

If you want to give an appearance of normalcy while maintaining a living soul, just get a Pixelfed account, follow a bunch of photographers, and scroll endlessly.

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[–] ElPussyKangaroo 22 points 11 months ago

Heh, look at you, asking this in Lemmy, as if we're all normal.

[–] Graphy 20 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Idk but wtf are people always doing on their phone in the car. Am I the weird one where I can’t even think of anything I’d like to do on my phone while driving? I can change media and text my wife all via voice control if I need to.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 11 months ago (5 children)

I used to try to use voice control for changing media when driving, but found it hilariously unreliable since it had to try to parse the voice command through the music. Is there a trick to that besides having a better mic I'm missing?

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[–] [email protected] 18 points 11 months ago (2 children)

Lots of people are on TikTok and Instagram.

I on the other hand stare at the nearest wall.

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[–] [email protected] 17 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

Normal people? Probably mostly Facebook, Instagram and candy crush. You can just take a look at the top free apps in your app store but I'll give you a spoiler: it's 99% junk.

Okay so I actually checked. The top 3 are Temu (a ripoff shopping app), WhatsApp and Tiktok in my region

[–] Mr_Blott 8 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Just checked too

Temu (sHoP LikE a biLLiONaIRe lol)

Shein (Shiet)

WhatsApp

Clearly the french like shit quality and chatting

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[–] [email protected] 14 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

The majority are on TikTok, instagram, Facebook, YouTube and X. Probably Tinder and Hinge after those.

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[–] [email protected] 13 points 11 months ago

Wikipedia rabbit holes

[–] kemsat 13 points 11 months ago

My wife scrolls through Instagram & plays mobile games. She’s pretty normal.

[–] TheJims 12 points 11 months ago

If I ever find a normal person I’ll ask them for you.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 11 months ago

Please define "normal people". ;)

[–] [email protected] 11 points 11 months ago (2 children)

You know how you scroll through your Instagram feed and then stop when you get to the big checkmark?

Yeah, normal people keep scrolling. For literally an hour or two at a time.

[–] SlothMama 7 points 11 months ago

What big checkmark???

[–] PutangInaMo 6 points 11 months ago

I tried Instagram but it's like scrolling through Facebook videos.. all garbage.

[–] cosmicrookie 10 points 11 months ago

After quitting Facebook and Instagram, I spend a lot more time reading books on my phone. I have found two apps to read and listen to free books through my library.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 11 months ago

I check the weather, use my calendar, listen to podcasts, take notes, use the camera and occasionally browse lemmy while on a toilet like now

[–] [email protected] 9 points 11 months ago

Normal people seem to look at a lot of social media, yes. Instagram, tiktok, whatever. Some people also have a lot of group chats.

Some people read. Your library probably offers free ebooks. Comics, too, when I want something even simpler.

[–] thorbot 9 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (3 children)

I have Feedly app and a bunch of RSS feeds about tech, world news, board games, video games, robotics, space, and pop culture. It’s great! Sure I get a few duplicate articles from multiple sites covering the same thing but it’s nice little digital newspaper. And if one site keeps publishing stupid shit I can unsubscribe from it and it’s gone from my feed.

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[–] Xanis 9 points 11 months ago

Dunno about normal, per se. I have adhd and when I'm not forgetting what I was about to do in the time between having the thought and picking up my phone, I am often diving down some rabbit hole. This might be a quick Google search in a definition, or to figure out where I heard a word. For example, a friend recently mentioned acid reflux. So my brain thought "GERD?", "GERDY??", "THE HERDY GERDY?!?" which led me to Wikipedia, then to a handful of rather cool videos on Youtube of people playing the instrument.

Er...

My point being: Use it as a helpful miscellaneous tool. Like a physical widget that can go along with near any activity.

[–] jacktherippah 8 points 11 months ago (3 children)

Probably social media like Facebook, Instagram, ... Or video sharing sites like TikTok (yuck!) and YouTube.

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[–] Thcdenton 8 points 11 months ago (2 children)

Porn. Lots and lots of porn.

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

From my observations: Normal people don't look at their phone; they listen to it.

If you're expecting normal people to answer: Do you even know where you are right now? :p

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[–] Etterra 7 points 11 months ago

Probably* TikTok or some other stupid shit.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 11 months ago

i read random wikipedia articles

[–] [email protected] 6 points 11 months ago

I look at lemmy or mastodon but I am very much less than normal.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 11 months ago

I'll second the idea that more than a few minutes of tiktok, YouTube shorts or Instagram reels is debilitating.

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