This little instance has been great, but Lemmy and the fediverse in general is really dragging on me.
Every. Single. Thread. has the word “capitalism” or “Trump” in it somewhere. I’m sick to death of it. Even though I agree with a lot of the sentiment, the erosion of the middle class, the concentration of wealth, the consolidation of media, the “you will own nothing and be happy” mentality permeating the consumer space. In many ways that’s why I left Reddit and joined Lemmy, but dang it that doesn’t mean I want to talk about absolutely nothing else.
And the only communities devoid of politics are also devoid of content. I do a lot of worldbuilding stuff, and I’ve tried to make !worldbuilding@lemmy.world more active, but sometimes I feel like I’m the only poster. Then I look at r/worldbuilding, and there’s a glut of really interesting posts showcasing people’s imagination and creativity, and nary a mention of Musk or Epstein in sight.
And then there’s the tech side of things. Hope you like Linux, cuz that’s all you’re going to see. And if you dare suggest that Linux may not be the right choice for your blind grandmother, you get eviscerated in the comments.
Granted, Reddit itself used to have a similar problem. It attracted a very specific type of user (neckbeards) and the experience wasn’t great if you weren’t one, but ironically the same popularization of Reddit that lead to its platform decay also solved this homogeneity problem. Similarly, Tankies and their ilk seem to flock to Lemmy, explaining the tone of the discourse.
Am I crazy? Anyone else feel the same? Did I knock over a hornet’s nest and this post is going to end up deleted?
Update, having made a new Reddit account after three years, I suddenly remember why I left. On the one hand there’s way less ragebait. People actually talk about the topic of the sub and don’t try to shove a mention of Trump or Palestine in at every opportunity. On the other hand it’s still dangerously addictive to scroll infinitely. I’m already adding firewall rules to block reddit at night to keep me from scrolling instead of sleeping. They’ve also tried to make it addictive on purpose I think. I’m constantly getting notifications, by email and internally, every time a post or comment is upvoted. They have engagement analytics for every post, and encourage you to improve them by cross-posting. It seems gross and cynical, like you’re not having a genuine human interaction but churning out “content” that can be monetized.
And the ads masquerade as normal posts and comments. Granted that was the case when I left, but it’s worse now. I’m not a naive hippie who thinks you can run a massive online platform on sunshine and vibes. I get there are bills to pay, but surely there’s a way to do that that doesn’t compromise the user experience.
So I’m stuck between an awful platform with a nice community and a nice platform with a (mostly) awful community. Of course I could abandon both and stick with old school forums.