do you also spend a lot less time on Lemmy compared to Reddit?

Xeon@lemmy.ml to Asklemmy@lemmy.ml – 369 points –

I caught myself loads of times scrolling on Reddit while not even paying attention, or while scrolling on Reddit to then close it immediately opening Reddit again to continue scrolling.

It felt just like any other social media app, scrolling mindlessly, for at least a few hours a day. I noticed this has changed since I've been using Lemmy, where I might spend 30 minutes a day on. I'm curious if other experience this too! It feels nice to be freed from Reddit.

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The only reason I use Lemmy less than I used reddit is the lack of content, I was following so many subreddits that every time I sorted by new I could scroll for hours before I hit the posts I'd seen last time I opened the app. Here there just aren't as many communities and a lot of the ones I'm following are dead so my feed is just the same 20 posts every time I open it.

And actual content or discussions I want to engage with. Plenty of memes here, but if I want to talk about any hobbies that aren’t Linux or video games, there just isn’t much here (yet).

So for better and worse, I also spend less time on lemmy than I did on reddit

Also the constant outcries from vegans and environmentalists…like we get it, the world is on fire. You’re not the first to tell me that and there’s little I can do about it. It’s so exhausting.

I probably had only around 70 subs in my list of Reddit. On lemmy, I have 274.

But if you add up the active users in your subs and communities, the subs would still outweigh the communities significantly

Yeah my browsing time has gone down compared to Reddit. But Lemmy has far less mindless content, if I’m on here I’m more engaged and actively read articles linked or write comments.

Yes, definitely! I wonder what that is. Because I definitely engage way more with the actual content, reading full articles, actually opening articles…on Reddit, I was so angry with myself because I wouldn’t actually read the shit. Which was very unlike me. Very odd

I suppose part of it is that a lot of Reddit content was repetitive, and also, because Lemmy is still much smaller, there are less mindless posts and comments, which make me take contributions more serious and cause me to be less frustrated about scrolling over comments which are only empty noise

For me I'm on the website, and I need to click on "Next Page" which takes a bit of time to load, as well as Basically making everything before disepear and it can be hard to find it again

On Reddit it felt useless to comment, when I found an interesting topic the discussion was already drowning with one word comments and other useless stuff. Here on Lemmy the discussions feel more genuine. Probably it’s because the userbase is more mature, or the nature of Lemmy is not to generate money.

Im beginning to use lemmy more and more and preferring it over reddit. Its much better, conversationally and without the suggested Jesus and Army and Navy ads etc. However my usage is still similar to reddit, ie scrolling and reading alot of things and memes etc. But the conversational interactions seem alot more productive, i like that.

The amount of time wasted on our attention spans because of ads... Sometimes I feel suffocated, it feels like an intruder trying to crack open my skull through repetition. It's so nice to be able to go on a website with no ads like lemmy! MY ADBLOCKER DOES NOTHING IT HAS NOT HAPPENED IN THE PAST 10 YEARS

My adblockers work so well I haven't seen a reddit ad in years.

I use block origin, noscript, plus my own pihole.

Yeah cuz I tend to run out of content quicker, but it gets refilled quite a bit throughout the day

Same here. For me I can count how many times I opened Lemmy throughout the day compared to reddit in which sometimes I opened it literally seconds after closing it. Not that I'm complaining nor celebrating it, for me it's just that.

I'd like to to spend the same time on Lemmy, but then I just see the same posts all over again.

100％. I was so addicted to reddit I would, like you said, open it without even noticing I did it. It was really shocking to me how many hours a day I was pissing away reading the reposts of bots and the thoughts of teen edge lords. The protests came at a great time, havent been back since (my sub is still on private hehe..) anyway, popping in here is fun and everything but I dont think it'll ever get as bad as it was.

Nope. I spend significantly more time, attempting to engage and energize this community. :)

I spend more time on Lemmy, but that's mostly because I admin an instance.

Same. But even before that I was spending a ton of time as a regular user trying to generate activity. I think I'm finally starting to relax a little bit because Lemmy seems to be stabilizing. Growth has slowed but the core users are more active than ever, and people are starting to form sustainable communities. It feels so right to be a part of this.

I've doom scrolled on here a few times, but it's not nearly as bad as I was with reddit.

That said, it's partially due to less content, and I've also made myself pick up a book for the first time in ages after leaving reddit.

Yes. Like others have said, the content hasn't quite caught up in volume or diversity.

But I think another factor is that when I fire up Lemmy, it feels like r/all in that I'm getting everything. There seem to be quite a number of meme-themed subreddits communities that dominate my All feed. Now that I think about it, I should probably make the effort to block those; I've made that effort on kbin.

In a way, I think it might be nice to have something equivalent to r/popular, fwiw.

Minor nit: "community" ("magazine" on kbin) doesn't have the same 'zing' as "subreddit". We need something like "sublemmy" or "sublem".

Root problem Is the name 'Lemmy', which is kinda lame-y.

Also bad is that we're not called Redditors but ... lemmings? Lemurs?

Almost worth changing the name.

not sure if more or less, but the time spent here is 100% more enjoyable. With corporate social media there's always this vague sense of brain-rot going on in the background. Don't feel this here. Actually had some nice conversations over the fast few weeks.

I used Reddit for mindless nonsense but mostly for finding answers in niche topics. As good as Lemmy seems so far it will take a long time for the user count to be suffient enough to fill the information void. I'll bet our time spent here will increase as user volumes increase

Yes, but only because the communities I used to be part of on reddit just aren't the same here, in number of users or content. Maybe that will change, and I hope it does, but I keep seeing people being put off as Lemmy has been down so much or people have trouble creating an account and give up. I don't dislike that Lemmy is smaller, it's nice to have more real conversations with people, but the subreddit I used the most was my local city's, and there just isn't another space like that online. I miss it.

I spend a lot more time in Lemmy. The conversations here are engaging and intelligent and I actually learn something. Reddit on the other hand was overwhelming as your comment can easily be drowned out by thousands of comments and shit comments.

I enjoy my time here. And Reddit? What is a Reddit? Never heard of it...

Mostly cuz there's a lot less stuff to do here. A lot of my favorite communities haven't migrated over yet., and the ones that are here aren't very active. The ALL feed seems to be mostly news, politics, and old memes, nothing I really care for.

I actually am spending about the same amount of time on Lemmy as I used to on reddit, modulo interesting posts for me to interact with.

Me too. I’m glad to not have any more or less really and content here seems to not yet be from the same 20 ppl.

Nope. I feel like I spend about as much. I comment a lot, though, so the doomscrolling factor is probably less important.

i would scroll a lot longer on lemmy if there would be more content and my app Liftoff wouldn't completely reset where i left off when i click a link or leave the app for a second. each time i have to search again where i was etc.. sucks after 2 time too much to try again. also the sorting in the app don't rly works.. i click sort by new in my profile and it does nothing.

For me it is quite the opposite. Using Connect app, and enabling "Hide read posts while scrolling" there is endless fresh content every time I scroll during the day

I think I'm still getting used to lemmy and navigating around I think subconsciously I am put off by this.. Once I get the hang of it I am sure my habits will go back.

I'd say less time, probably b/c Lemmy doesn't have a predatory algorithm to keep me on it for hours on end.

Yeah. Lemmy and kbin don't do infinite scrolling by default and it's made me a lot happier.

When I hit the end of page 1, I stop and find something more useful to do with my time.

No, I spend more time here.

I've been splitting my old Reddit time across multiple sites and projects now. I'm pretty keen on watching the content at squabbles, they've generally got a really positive environment and nice pictures.

Also been working on improving kbin since it's open source, great to get some mobile centric changes to make everyone's experience a little better 🦙

I’d like for kbin/Lemmy to be a full substitute, but right now only meme subs on lemmy are taking off or getting significant traction. It’s actually sort of annoying and makes me not want to bother. Apps are rough, block tools are inconsistent, see tons of posts twice or more all day (would happen on Reddit too, but pretty rarely, when big news was relevant to several large subreddits). Until the smaller subs I frequented Reddit for in the first place start coming over, kbin/lemmy can’t realistically be a replacement. Just something I check for a few minutes to try to leave app feedback and contribute traffic where I can.

It will take a very good app and a couple more high profile niche subs (like /r/piracy) mostly shifting to the Fediverse to start a real migration.

I've noticed this too. Most of the stuff on Reddit's frontpage has an angry undertone. Anger = Engagement.

No, since I can't sensibly use Reddit on my phone.
I misread - yes, I use Lemmy somewhat less now than I used to use Reddit. Which is probably a good thing^^

What pissed me off about reddit is how it fingerprinted your machine.

If you don't know what that is, be scared. Be very scared.

That meant if some power-mad admin lording it over some subreddit blocked me for petty reasons, it would be easy to get all my other 6 alt accounts permanently banned.

F YOU for that, reddit.

Found some anti-fingerprinting defenses, which protect me at other sites, is the only silver lining.

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Yes. I browse for less time now, but I find the interactions and content on Lemmy and other federated sites to be more enriching, interesting, and civil.

I mainly access reddit by Google searches, so yes unfortunately I am still tied down to reddit somewhat. Too mad Lemmy never is a result on Google when asking a question

My hope is that there will be eventually. Lemmy is slowly surfacing already, before, when searching 'lemmy' on google, the musician had a big display, now it's toned down and shared with lemmy making some of the top results.

I actually find myself spending more time here, to the point to where I might have to take a break because it's starting to become unhealthy.

I think the reason why is since there are less posts per volume, it's easier to read through everything. Since the communities are smaller, the news and discussion is more focused. And because a lot of the more tech savy and activist minded individuals made the switch over to lemmy, I find it easier to have more nuanced conversation than on reddit.

However some of my bad habits from reddit are starting to resurface here, and I probably need to start regulating my time here. At the very least, I feel like I get a lot more out of my time and participation here.

Time wise, yes. But I engage more, instead of just lurk, because my comment won’t be buried under the sheer amount of comments. Also, the smaller communities have less activity at the moment, but it’s all good. I’m not reading as much bad content while navigating a slew of annoying crypto ads and sketchy ads for overpriced mindfulness retreats.

Yes. There's less content to scroll through here (not a bad thing) so ensures scrolling isn't a thing anymore. I'll still visit a certain Reddit sub from time to time but at some point I'll probably let that go too.

Yes. Lemmy goes down too, forcing me to step away from it.

I'm on kbin (I think it has much better algorithm that lemmy, and magazines/communities look more active even though it is the same network) and tildes.net.

Initially I felt like I had to visit reddit, but over past days lemmy/kbin feels more and more active. Still not like reddit, but active enough to not feel the need to go to reddit. It's possible that maybe I just found right communities that I'm interested in, or numer of people increased, or both.

I think a big portion of it is the quality of the content and comments. Just not as much on there, and not as many of the small communities I would check.

I reduced my time on both platforms.

On reddit most of my favorite subs eventually ended up mostly inactive.

And on lemmy/kbin it's either kinda scattered all across, or federation is not consistent like missing comments/votes, which makes it less fun to use, tbh.

I am starting to. Still browse Reddit occasionally for the communities that are not in here yet.

Reddit as a whole seems a lot less populated. Example, the r/android sub is nowhere near as active as it used to be.

I quit Reddit a while back so it’s nice being on a similar place again. I scroll through federated posts mostly, since that matches scrolling through r/all.

I am using Lemmy way more, the only time I go back to Reddit is when there is literally no new content on Lemmy lol.

since making the fediverse my new home; i learned that i spend an hour (maybe 2 max) before i run out of content and i can spend 4+ hours without noticing while scrolling reddit even though i no longer have an account there and can't participate in any conversations anymore.

I do spend much less time, but it's a good thing. I was heavily addicted to Reddit. Lemmy scratches that itch, but it's not completely dominating my focus like Reddit had been. It feels like a much healthier relationship I'm having with social media than I had before, and I'm experiencing significantly less anxiety day to day the past few weeks. I'm 100% a doom scroller.

I’d say I still spend more time on Reddit just because there’s some niche communities there that haven’t (and probably won’t) moved to Lemmy. I have been using Lemmy more often though. I stopped using it for a couple weeks after the initial push when the blackouts started on Reddit just because of the lack of content and good mobile apps. This week I’ve used it a lot more after being pleasantly surprised at how much more activity and content there was after just a couple of weeks and now there’s a lot of great mobile apps to choose from. Went from Voyager to Memmy. Both are trying to capture the magic Apollo had (and both are doing a really good job I have to say) but it’s hard to beat the native app experience which Memmy gives. It is really cool that I can self-host Voyager though.

I must say I find it the same time waster. I don't miss Reddit at all

Can't use reddit on phone, so when i'm not on my computer, it's lemmin' time!

I spend more time on Lemmy. More interesting content, more commenting on my part.

Yeah it's slower with less people. Reddit I scrolled to find stuff, where as I use lemmy to post things i find

Only thing that happened was lemmy replaced Reddit. I lurk more now though.

I use Kbin less, possibly due to a lower amount of content, but I surely use it way more deliberately

I spend a lot more time on it since I am an instance admin. (not on this account or instance though)

maybe less, though i’ve also been spending less time on social media like that lately anyways. though i do like lemmy, reddit has a lot more content in general and subs for my more niche interests (mostly battlejackets), so i do find myself scrolling there a fair amount. it tends to be a more conscious decision though, which is good, and i tend to stick to only a few subs that i really like. less mindless scrolling, more hunting for inspiration and conversation.

I'd say a similar amount of time, but I post and comment significantly more here. And I like kbin's vibe a lot more than I did reddit's for the last few years, so I don't even miss it. This place is nice :)