Ive always differentiated lemmy/reddit from social media for 2 main reasons. First because it isnt (or wasnt) full of “influencers” trying to push shit on you. Second and probably more so, becausee its anonymous. I dont know anyone one here personally and no one knows me. These platforms are more like collections of the internet with a comment section, imo. Not much different than things like The Chive or even a news site, but instead of news, its memes and sometimes news
The structured user information is what I think killed the “free” vibe of the early internet: you naturally see a lot of information even before you contact anyone. That removes some intimacy of exchanging information about who you are, in a way you want.
Around 2000, I was playing pool with random people on Yahoo Games, and trying to learn English talking to them. I’ve met a girl of my age from Jakarta, I talked to some boomer Arizona cowboy who was relieved to know “we’re not fucking commies anymore” (I`m Russian). These were interesting conversations where we discovered each other. Now I wouldn’t talk to the guy like that, because “I see we probably don’t have much in common, and he wrote this and that to other people”
And, unfortunately more and more frequently, news about the memes.
By which I mean that politics has become a farce where memes are often taken more seriously than things like science and thoroughly researched journalism 😮💨
Ive always differentiated lemmy/reddit from social media for 2 main reasons. First because it isnt (or wasnt) full of “influencers” trying to push shit on you. Second and probably more so, becausee its anonymous. I dont know anyone one here personally and no one knows me. These platforms are more like collections of the internet with a comment section, imo. Not much different than things like The Chive or even a news site, but instead of news, its memes and sometimes news
The structured user information is what I think killed the “free” vibe of the early internet: you naturally see a lot of information even before you contact anyone. That removes some intimacy of exchanging information about who you are, in a way you want. Around 2000, I was playing pool with random people on Yahoo Games, and trying to learn English talking to them. I’ve met a girl of my age from Jakarta, I talked to some boomer Arizona cowboy who was relieved to know “we’re not fucking commies anymore” (I`m Russian). These were interesting conversations where we discovered each other. Now I wouldn’t talk to the guy like that, because “I see we probably don’t have much in common, and he wrote this and that to other people”
“Social media” is as much “social” as that “dating apps” are “dating”
So…very?
don’t forget memes about the news
And, unfortunately more and more frequently, news about the memes.
By which I mean that politics has become a farce where memes are often taken more seriously than things like science and thoroughly researched journalism 😮💨