This is a sequel to this rant. I came to the realization that Lemmy and the broader fediverse aren’t really fun for me. The constant ragebait and politics shoehorned into everything was dragging me down, and the only communities without ragebait are also without content in general.
So I caved and made a Reddit account after 3 years and it’s gotten so, so much worse. First is probably the “gamification” of everything. Reddit already had karma, which had its own problems, but it was simple. Monkey brain like number go up. Now they show you analytics on your posts and comments, and encourage you to improve them, as though you’re meeting a metric rather than trying to connect with other people. It’s gross and cynical.
Then there’s the notifications. I get a notification every time a post is upvoted, not just for replies. It feels engineered to squeeze every drop of dopamine out of you and keep you feeding the content machine.
This one’s more subtle. The simple Reddit gold awards that existed when I first joined in 2012 had already ballooned into a myriad of different little trophies when I left in 2023, but they’ve redesigned them and now they look like assets from a free to play mobile game, with the way the awards shine when you mouse over them to that particular bright plasticky round art style. It’s not damning on its own, but combined with the above points it’s another nail in the coffin.
Sponsored posts I think were already a thing when I left, but now there are ads in the comments as well. There used to be one ad on a specific dedicated spot off to the side. It was unobtrusive without being hard to find. I felt that was fair. But it’s not about keeping the lights on anymore, now the whole things screams “You’re the product!”
But worst of all are the bots, AI masquerading as real users that make superficially genuine posts and comments. Discriminating between AI and human content is probably a skill that I could hone with time, but I shouldn’t have to go on a witch hunt every time someone compliments me. I’ve even been tricked into wasting my empathy on them, all so they can farm me for content.
So yeah, maybe I should just throw away my router and go outside.
Go outside
I browse feeds for about an hour a day, to get a feel for the information and mark anything I want to deep dive at my leisure. Outside is great. Creating things is great. I would highly recommend it. Even if you don’t ever make anything “worthwhile”, doing is worthwhile.
Is rather die with a pile of poor paper-mache ant heads wilting in the humidity, than 1000 karma or 1,000 people who know me as “wireheadcrawfishscissors” on socials. I’d rather waste an hour under a tree, listening to the wind, than an hour listening to others rage and whine into the void.
The world outside is beautiful. The one capitalism has created is a Frankenstenian horror of rotting thoughts posing as alive through the power of electricity. It wants to eat you. That’s its only goal. Don’t put your head in its mouth.
My brother I live deep inside a city and the heat is unbearable. The wet bulb temprature here is higher than 30c. Being outside isn’t much of an option for me