OC. (as always, feel free to steal any meme I post!)
Yeah i opened reddit recently and was immediately hit with those fake AITA stories that somehow i once kinda believed, and now, after being in more sane communities, those stories just look fabricated for maximum interaction.
It baffles me how i never realised reddit, twitter and other socials leveraged the outrage machine so much until i joined lemmy.
I went back and got irrationally angry… immediately realized Reddit was pure cancer.
Twitter is bad too. On top of the outrage bait, there’s a ton of garbage posts that are just designed to farm engagement: “Which of these 12 movies from the 1990s is your favorite?” - and the post is just 12 numbered movie covers.
I don’t mean to bitch or anything, but this kind of post (other social platforms are bad) is a pretty decent engagement farm as well.
I think this post is likely to get people talking, but the intent was just to make something funny.
The stuff I’m referring to on twitter is this kind of (borderline phishing in this case) nonsense:
What’s wild is there is a total side business that feeds on those posts. There are at least a dozen podcasts centered solely around AITA posts.
I was surprised to see so many “AITA for cutting out certain foods? Yes, buy Weight Watchers, asshole!” ads disguised as posts. I’m sure they’re not new, but using a third party app meant I never had to see them.
I’m pretty sure the stories themselves are fake but a lot of the situations are plausible that I can kind of see happening some time. The comments sometimes have a lot of useful guidance for navigating complicated social situations. But yeah I do agree with you overall.
There still a little of outrage nonsense here, but it’s mostly Tankies and other political nonsense.
Also, if you look at the bigger picture, Reddit is nothing more then a psyop with a bunch of extreme activists trying to steer people to support thier cause.
Yesterday I witnessed outrage against someone who dared to suggest that getting some sun everyday was good for you. People berated him as if you could get cancer just by being exposed like we were fucking vampires.
Lol, there’s no subtle nuances to anything over there. Take sex work for instance, according to Reddit if you’re in that profession, you’re either trafficked or groomed and that’s it.
It would be absolutely crazy to think that someone would be willing to perform sex acts for six figures and minimal work time. No fucking way🙄
six figures
Shit, here I am giving it away like a chump. Imma write up an invoice for my wife.
I told my wife that if she wants to wack off on the internet for cash, that’s fine by me. 🤣
Not really sure lemmy is all that much better from an outrage addict perspective, at least looking at All. Sure things are better if you curate your feed a bit, but that’s true on the other platforms as well.
From looking at All I definitely agree. Feed curation seems like the answer, but I haven’t found enough active communities for the kind of variety I want, and All feels like the right place to look for more.
Fortunately the Star Trek memes here are hot enough to melt dilithium crystals, and that’s all I really need!
The biggest opinions get the most attention
Reddit keeps suggesting outrage bait when I check back in on college football game threads (which seemingly does not exist on Lemmy). Lemmy is never going to “because you once looked at a thread in this community”
the glaring lack of college football content on lemmy has been the biggest disappointment I have had. When I left twitter, I couldnt get real time sports news updates, /r/cfb filled that void. There is no comparable community yet in lemmy, or if there is, I havent found it
If this meme was about Lemmy, it would be getting blasted by furry post
Thank God I’ve blocked those communities.
Any communities in particular a new Lemmy user like me should steer clear of?
I’ve personally blocked a lot of furry, nsfw, news bots (they usually have “bot” in the name of the comm or user), and the more toxic communist ones.
It really doesn’t take a lot of work to curate your feed as you go. Glad to have you here!
Thanks!
New Lemmy user, new to the fediverse or both?
New to both. I created my Lemmy account around the time all the API crap was happening with Reddit. Still getting used to the fediverse. I like the smaller community sizes here. Feels like there’s more room to breathe.
Ok, good to know. I’m also a new user from the Reddit api BS. Here’s what I know, depending on if you want to see NSFW content or not, find a instance that serves your needs. Be prepared that in the beginning, using the “All” feature, will be the best way to decipher what content you want to see and what you don’t. Block communities you don’t like, subscribe to the ones you do and don’t do either the ones you are on the fence about. Over time, your “Subscribed” filter will be great. It’s a pain in the beginning, but necessary and good since there’s not a algorithm MAKING THESE DECISIONS FOR YOU. I love the fact that I can control what I do see and what I don’t. Switching accounts on Lemmy is very easy to do to keep things organized in case you want an account for NSFW content and one you don’t…you know…for research purposes.
I agree on being able to control your feed. I’ll keep it on “All” while I work on curating my subscribed communities. Thanks for the tips!
I don’t disagree with the sentiment, but antiwork and related pages are full of mis/disinformation that is very misleading and dangerous if large groups are swayed by it. The people there are particularly aggressive and savage about it when their ignorance is pointed out in good faith. Again I get it and their hearts are usually in the right place, but I’d recommend steering clear.
I haven’t come across them and I usually browse ALL. Is this a product of what lemmy.world defeded?
Probably. I haven’t really seen much pop into my feed either lately. I just assumed I nipped it in the bud, but there might be some defed action happening behind the scenes too. I take no credit here, I’m just exploring the space as they say.
I almost made this about some of the weirder lemmy communities, but I didn’t want it to be taken as mean.
I know how you feel and thank you for replying.
First time I heard the term “Outrage addict” that seems to fit pretty well.
If you didn’t know already, it’s really worth knowing that anger is addictive and acts on dopamine pathways.
That’s the same mechanism which cocaine works through.
Anything more than very occasional anger is dangerously unhealthy, if you value not being an arsehole for the rest of your life
(I might be slightly dramatising, but really everyone chill the fuck out, there’s much better ways to get your dopamine)
Thanks, I wasn’t aware that anger triggered a dopamine response, but makes sense. I am pretty laid back, so it’s hard for me to understand people that are angry all the time
I truly think that’s what has been happening. People seek out stuff to be angry about for the rush, and the algorithm translates that into serving up the most extreme takes on literally every issue.
I’m right and that asshole is wrong. Everything would be great if we just beat the crap out of that guy. I just solved all of our problems. Feels great being right doesn’t it? Damn I’m awesome. Better than railing a fat line of blow.
I read once that it’s a social evolution thing. Humans are more likely to survive if we work together, and part of working together means following the rules and a little bit of self sacrifice. We get a little shot of dopamine when we call someone out for breaking the rules because it makes the tribe stronger. The problem is that we figured out that psychological hack and it’s being exploited now to insane levels. We are wired to stop the guy next to us from eating twice his share of the crop or whatever, not for seeing every little assholeish thing some random politician said on the other side of the country, or every person a cop beats up, or every time a Karen is rude to a cashier, and so on. I don’t know how accurate that is but it sure sounds right.
Sort by top/hour, and you’ll see 3 pages of crypto scam. I’d post a pic, but it doesn’t seem to upload here.
Gross. You know, I don’t think I’ve read anything about crypto since joining Lemmy. That’s really nice.
Bam!
Kick it up a notch!
Hit it with your spice weasel
Ok, against my better judgement, I’m going to kick it up another notch. BAM!
Ah yes, also I a fellow American agree that there is definitely no astroturfing going on here
What if instead of sarcastic comments you just provided evidence or reasoning to bolster your claim so we can stop breeding more fucking dumb asses who take whatever you say on the surface as gospel?
Isn’t that why astroturfing works?
I didnt visit my tumblr for a week and acquired 30 new pornbot followers.
Tumblr Live and all the new algorithm fuckery is really messing up the site : (I’ve been out of the loop for a while, but didn’t tumblr remove their porn? I guess they brought it back?
Eh they cracked down hard on all queer and trans stuff to the point of banning users over posting fully clothed selfies, but hetro cis stuff is still everywhere.
The pornbots have been around for years but they’ve ramped up big time since Tumblr Live came online.
A particularly good meme captain
Thank you, Lieutenant “Pickle” Casmael.
Like the other user said. It’s really up to personal preference. I didn’t need porn clogging up my internets tubes. Trying to keep that wide open for those gambling horses. Nothing against those communities, it’s just not my thing or what I come here for.
It’s not leaving social media if you can go back. Delete that shit and never look back
I still use Facebook (mainly for Simpsons memes and Marketplace), but the X and Reddit ones OOF, they’re totally true.
A concoction so vial it makes people leave. …“we could make a religion out of this…”
Every time I visit twitter I have a bunch of notifications of just post recommendations. To be clear I never got these when I used it regularly, it’s just trying to get me back
