The apps I've been using have been glitchy, or at least lemmy.world's performance is, so I keep going back to Boost just because it's such a great app experience. I haven't been going to it as much though, it feels a bit ruined for me. Like there are still great people and communities, but I feel like I can't engage now because it gives data to the admins. And the quality of content overall has gone down between some subs still being dark, other subs protesting by pivoting to joke and NSFW content, and a lot of high quality users moving to Lemmy.
For the most part I avoid negative content, but I was on a lot of subs that had to engage with it (r/LGBT, trans subs, etc) Plus I like to be kept aware about what's going on with legislation regarding human rights in the US so that can be a bummer I guess but I don't blame the platform for being the messenger. So I haven't really noticed a mental health shift but I have been trying to move away from reddit and do other things I enjoy, so I guess that counts? I've been reading and playing video games a bit more which is really nice.
I know what you mean about "it feels a bit ruined" - I had to post something for work there today (a technical question that I felt was best suited there), the first time I've been on for two weeks. It kinda felt like I was visiting a porn site - that same shifty feeling that I hope nobody notices it was me.
It is a real shame, but when you sit back and think about it - it's just a website. It's not really that important compared to other things, so I'm generally finding better things to do, like you are. Doing that, for whatever reason, is a good thing.
It does kinda feel like a porn site! Dirty and guilty almost, useful in the moment and then you realize you don't really wanna spend any more time there than you have to haha. It makes me a little sad though because I feel like I've learned so many interesting things there, found so many niche hobbies and communities over the years. But like you said it's just a website and at the end of the day it's the humans who make the communities. Doesn't matter who's hosting it, I think we'll always find a way to gather and share cool things with each other. I'm hopeful in that way for the future of the fediverse.
And yeah, finding something better to do with my time other than feeding my addiction to information via infinite scrolling is definitely a good thing. Data paralysis, info stasis, whatever you wanna call it, is numbing and and I think so many people use it as a crutch and vice because life is hard and inaction is easier.
The apps I've been using have been glitchy, or at least lemmy.world's performance is, so I keep going back to Boost just because it's such a great app experience. I haven't been going to it as much though, it feels a bit ruined for me. Like there are still great people and communities, but I feel like I can't engage now because it gives data to the admins. And the quality of content overall has gone down between some subs still being dark, other subs protesting by pivoting to joke and NSFW content, and a lot of high quality users moving to Lemmy.
For the most part I avoid negative content, but I was on a lot of subs that had to engage with it (r/LGBT, trans subs, etc) Plus I like to be kept aware about what's going on with legislation regarding human rights in the US so that can be a bummer I guess but I don't blame the platform for being the messenger. So I haven't really noticed a mental health shift but I have been trying to move away from reddit and do other things I enjoy, so I guess that counts? I've been reading and playing video games a bit more which is really nice.
I know what you mean about "it feels a bit ruined" - I had to post something for work there today (a technical question that I felt was best suited there), the first time I've been on for two weeks. It kinda felt like I was visiting a porn site - that same shifty feeling that I hope nobody notices it was me.
It is a real shame, but when you sit back and think about it - it's just a website. It's not really that important compared to other things, so I'm generally finding better things to do, like you are. Doing that, for whatever reason, is a good thing.
It does kinda feel like a porn site! Dirty and guilty almost, useful in the moment and then you realize you don't really wanna spend any more time there than you have to haha. It makes me a little sad though because I feel like I've learned so many interesting things there, found so many niche hobbies and communities over the years. But like you said it's just a website and at the end of the day it's the humans who make the communities. Doesn't matter who's hosting it, I think we'll always find a way to gather and share cool things with each other. I'm hopeful in that way for the future of the fediverse.
And yeah, finding something better to do with my time other than feeding my addiction to information via infinite scrolling is definitely a good thing. Data paralysis, info stasis, whatever you wanna call it, is numbing and and I think so many people use it as a crutch and vice because life is hard and inaction is easier.