That's why I stay on Lemmy.
this post was submitted on 27 Dec 2024
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A Boring Dystopia
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I don't feel that people really talk with each other here on Lemmy, what's your opinion? It seems that we just share preconceived opinions and that's it.
Lemmy is small enough that there are some people I recognize, especially in the Star Trek meme community. It's not really made for conversation though, it's a forum: a place for sharing your opinion
I prefer it that way. I'd rather be dedicating more conversation with people in my physical space at this time. There's a reason the Surgeon General declared loneliness an epidemic, and it was heading there prior to the pandemic.
I get it, but each instance could have a community called "chat" or something, and people could talk about a specific topic. It's not a proper conversation but it's something... I know that we already do that, in some sense, but it's always more directed to commenting a news article, or a meme.
Recently I saw that some people gathered to read Das Capital, and they had scheduled each week to talk about a specific part of the book. That's something awesome and a great way to learn.
That's cool. There are some communities like that, like dull men's club. I've not engaged with them much, but they seem like cool places to chat
Most of us also don't have photos directly associated with us and most of us don't really know who the others are, I think those are two of the biggest things that seperate lemmy (and i guess reddit) from other social media sites.
I know but I see it as the special part. In this way we can communicate not about ourselves, but about common interests. Stuff like ticktock and Instagram are too focused on constructing an idealized "you"
Hello fellow Lemmy user. How's your day going?
Nice try, fed
Yeah, one of my resolutions is to give up Reddit. I've logged out for now and will be getting my little "social media" fix here for the time-being.
To be honest, I miss the niche subreddits, but I don't feel like I'm serving some corporate overlord at the same time
Same. There's a few that I can tolerate for 20 minutes a day. It's more about the niche subs that benefit from a wide range of people that have collected over the years. I love Lemmy, but even the large communities are a niche in a niche.
These days, it feels like every gathering place on the internet is so crowded with content that’s competing for — and successfully grabbing — our attention or trying to sell us something that there’s barely any room for the “social” element of social media. Instead, we’re pushed into separate corners to stare at the glowing boxes in our hands alone
True
We need real life social places again. We need decent parks, cafes, and third places that are accessible to everyone and ideally seperated from the cars we bring everywhere.
You are very unlikely to make friends with the car next to you in traffic compared to the person next to you on a bus seat. You won't meet the regulars of your cafe by using the drive-through. You won't get a work out partner by isolating yourself with music and phone screens while at the gym.
Third spaces that don't require spending money are very important too. If you can't afford a large enough living space to entertain, you shouldn't have to spend money somewhere else to spend time with your friends
Unfortunately many of the free to access social places in my area have become encampments, which is its own problem but i can understand a family not wanting their social place to be littered with garbage and needles. We need to address the issues pushing people to homelessness to be able to embrace our free third places again.
Well, we can start by looking at the cost of housing
Maybe because it's being increasingly monetized by soulless corporations?
The author of this article talks about wanting to find better places, but doesn't even mention options like Lemmy or Mastodon...
mastadon is mentioned alongside Blue sky
Oh, you're right! I missed it because I thought that paragraph was just talking about Threads more, and skimmed past. Still, a sentence and a half about how they're too clique-y isn't much of a look
Youtube? Idk, I learn a lot of stuff there.
YouTube can be good and evil at the same time
True, but I feel like the other 4 don't have any good in them.
Fortunately, YouTube is one of the very few platforms where long-form creation is not only accepted, but encouraged (not attributing this to anything other than greed, that's just their business model). This means that, accidentally, YouTube is somewhat the antithesis of standard Social Media - long-form kills "fast fashion" type dynamics.
Of course, it can fall victim to the same elements, namely AI gen, plagiarism, misinformation, trends (see Shorts, but luckily it's a new product by Google, so chances are good it'll die within the next two years), etc., but it's easier to smell bullshit when it comes in larger quantities.
TL;DR - my 2024 social media experience was rather pleasurable.
I left twitter and insta by 2017 (more ads and wannabe influencers than actual content). Left fb in 2020 after they marked a clear satire article (that self identified as one) as "misinformation" (really, just the last straw in a long list of obvious manipulation). Left reddit during the exodos. Created a new lemmy username (couldn't remember my old password). Haven't looked back.
It's an interesting way of arguing that corporate social media is shit, which we all knew and there's even a term for. Thus the alternatives.
In other words, this sounds a lot like a user error. Of course tech failing too, or succeeding depending on your goal. But still, a solved problem waiting for action.
Iv'e ejected infinite scroll, short form time vampires from my life in 2024, and it feels good. Now I have more time for reading and playing videogames, and I reccomend everyone to do the same.