Social Media
The absolute state of it. Ever since leaving Reddit a couple of years ago, I've been on a bit of a tour of other platforms. Except Twitter, wasn't ever my style in the first place and based on everything I've seen in screenshots and conversations about, it would just be one big case of rage bait for me, or blocking everyone I see.
And most of it is just a dumpster fire in some way, the mainstream stuff at least. Good content creators, especially once the algorithm knows. But SO many alt right trolls and transphobes and manosphere drones and preachers trying to save souls making most comment sections no go zones. It's all just rage inducing.
And after being away from here for a while, I think I have to accept that this platform is probably always going to be more like the forum sites of old than anything close to Reddit. Which is cool but really needs something extra if you want to somewhat in touch with the world. So at this point, I'm honestly interested in this supposed resurrection of MySpace on the horizon.
Honestly not venting, or trying to incite an angry circlejerk in the comments. Just wanted to dump my observations over these last few years somewhere. It's a sinking ship and looking like the best way forwards is backwards in this case. Back to forums and a MySpace account for friends and not algorithm slop. I'm kinda looking forward to it.
12 replies
It is insane how much of the content is just lies.
Yeah, from what I've seen, the default that most people seem to be consuming is all conspiracy and tabloid type of shit. And AI slop. And it's no wonder that the world is turning into a conservative hell hole where people think education and science is woke devil magic. Thankfully I've managed to tune the algorithm into mostly serving me music and feminism and gay shit these days lol.
So far, I like Lemmy. It has its problems, but I would say it is my favorite social media platform at the moment.
I wish I could get folks to switch over from Instagram to pixelfed more, but at this point I think people like all the random slop and influencers on insta and don't care about people they really know
One of the big things that makes it hard to get people to switch over I think, is they tend to get attached to certain content creators around that side of the web. And I doubt that most content creators would move over to the indie web because they make coin on mainstream social media. Some people even rely on that for their income, particularly people with disabilities etc.
It's also part of why things are so fucked up there because a lot of people and pages don't do any moderation because every interaction is engagement, which increases the pay for that month.
But more to the point, it's trickier than just moving the plebs over. There also needs to be a reason for the influencers and comic writers and musicians and actors to drop the mainstream sites, then the plebs will follow.
Which, I dunno. I don't that the coalition of anarchists and communists and anti commercialization people on this side of the net would ever really let that happen. Which is fine, it just means that this is the space to get away from that shit.
I just wish they could be two separate things, like all the influencers and slop and Instagram, and then real, non-profit motivated people on Pixelfed
Firstly, I feel what you are saying about social media writ large OP. That said, I'm not sure why we should believe MySpace 2.0 won't be more of the same as the walls of market forces and enshittification rise around it. There is some reasonable hope that it will start well but for my part I am not interested in investing my time in riding another slippery slope and would rather just go outside and keep working on the good habits.
Oh I definitely see it going the same way too. And the whole cycle will probably eventually repeat. But I'm planning on taking advantage of it while it's good anyway, and in 5 years or whatever it'll be a fond memory. Instead of just staying underground forever.
And I just have to say, outside is pretty shitty these days too and might as well be a subscription service if you actually want to take part in things and socialize, and not just huff exhaust fumes and get mugged lol. I guess that's probably all dependent on where in the world you are though. But what I'm saying is that unfortunately, social media is the most accessible and cheap way to not turn into a hermit that stares at walls for a hobby. I definitely get it if you've had enough though. Just speaking personally, I'm tired of being a hermit.
Fair enough. I'm pushing 50 and have a solid addiction to the endorphins that come from both running and skating just about every day. Not that I wouldn't like to share, but so it goes in this modern world. Keep fighting the odds and I will as well.
The sooner we go offline the better
The state of social media sucks. I’m leaving on an epic trip in the next couple of weeks and all my family and friends want to see photos so they can live vicariously through us. Only problem is none of them are on social media I would want to use (facebook, twitter, etc).
The odds of getting my family to use something like Mastodon or Pixelfed is highly unlikely. I may just say, “Sorry, if you want to see photos, here it is”. But then I have to play tech support to help them set it up. :/
Open for suggestions.
Group chat on Signal?
I got all my family on it.
I learned yesterday that old.reddit.com now requires signing in. I haven't logged in to Reddit since they purged 3rd party apps, and will not do it now either, so I guess I'll just be more active here now. Fuck that corporate piece of shit.