And yes, I’m aware of the irony of posting this on social media, but I truly think that it is an awful thing that has happened humanity.
And to be absolutely clear, I do acknowledge that there are benefits: it allows people who are distant to remain in touch, for example. Or it can be used to put out critical information (think COVID-19 for example).
But let’s face it — there’s another face to it also, one that brings out the worst of humanity. How far do you have to scroll on any platform before you find toxicity? Divisive, inflammatory comments that bring out the absolute worst in us. All because people have different opinions on any topic (the problem of course is not in people having different opinions, but in giving the masses the means to express their differing opinions is really what leads to too many civilised conversations descending into barbaric insults and word slinging. Try as hard as you like to disengage, friction will always produce heat.)
Moreover, how much misinformation has been spread on social media platforms over the years? I don’t think I need to say much more about that.
And to be clear: I’m not saying these issues and others are exclusive to social media — they certainly existed long before, perhaps even as early as when man first learned to communicate with one another — but the creation of social media is possibly the biggest chunk of fuel on the fire of discord, and regardless of where you go — whether it be Facebook, or Reddit, or Snapchat, or twitter, or YouTube, or Lemmy, or text messaging, or internet forums, or whatever other platforms exist out there, you will not find a platform that is not plagued — nay, riddled — with such awfulness. And no, I’m absolutely not saying that I myself have not played my fair part in toxicity because I have, but I’m willing to admit it. Are you?
I’d barely called Lemmy and most federated outlets as social, maybe more of a snarky anti-social media. Reddit id consider social media because they added all the ridiculous bells and whistles, tightened censorship to go public, pulled back api’s and old.Reddit and made the app a horrible experience. That’s what makes something truly social media for me, making it enshittified corporate shit that actively seeks to harm the most vulnerable groups and kids.
Same. It's a forum, that's all. There are no faces, it's pseudonymous at best, and I don't care who those people are. I usually don't even look at the "names" when I answer.
It's like saying newsgroups of the 80s forums of the 90s are "social media" because someone is behind the emails.
Yet, they’ve added application forms to most of Lemmy’s instances, not sure why exactly, but it’s one step towards becoming more and more like the other restrictive social media platforms go for. One day, you might be having to provide your phone number to sign up to it, or worse…
If that bothers you, run your own instance on which you are the only user.
I didn’t say it bothered me, just pointing out how Lemmy is becoming more ‘social media’-like. Plus, I’m quitting the platform in a short time anyway so it won’t make a difference to me.
It's not an airport, you don't have to announce your departure.
No, but it’s a good explanation to why I’m not gonna give a crap what happens to the platform
Bye Felicia