I can load an entire website with videos and then load videos in 720p, but I cannot load my inbox with one notification. It should be a miniscule amount of data. I was wondering how the data downloads are being parted. Unread and All seem to be separate based on the loading icon, but are they also separate in regards to downloading them? Is the inbox being partially cached or not? Do pages get downloaded separately or do you pre-download other pages?
Either way, I feel like a way to counter it may be if users were given the option to disable downloading media unless clicked on. Maybe add an option to disable avatars too. I've seen some users having animated avatars and I wonder how much of a download that causes for me. I mainly use Lemmy on the go so on mobile Internet and I won't lie, it's been a struggle at times.