Comment by runjake

10 hours ago

I can't speak for others but I just stopped. I still hang out on IRC and in a couple Discords but I mostly scroll through RSS now -- or read books.

I briefly scan X maybe once a week, but its a firehose of brainrot and view farming. My Bluesky feeds seem very politically angry and they talk about Elon more than people do on X. I feel for the anger, given the situation in the US, but it's just not mentally healthy. Mastodon is that, but worst -- share any non-mainstream thought and your replies are full of haters. I follow "famous" tech people and engineers, if it matters.

In many ways, I like it better this way. I'm forced to be bored more, and when I get the urge to check X or something, the mess that it is, curbs that pretty quickly.

5 comments

runjake

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bityard  9 hours ago

Social media is the online content equivalent of sugary breakfast cereal. It's engaging, but toxic for you in just about every possible way, no matter which end of the political spectrum you have chosen. People who are addicted to social media end up with a biased and extreme view of the world, fucked up hormones (dopamine, cortisol, adrenaline, etc), and most egregiously, waste enormous amounts of time that would be better spent curating a hobby or bonding with their friends and family in real life.

I would LOVE to join a social media network that very heavily discourages political content and negative news. Just cool people who like to bond over shared interests and maybe meet up to chat once in awhile. Unfortunately that isn't what sells ads.

pwlm  7 hours ago

> share any non-mainstream thought and your replies are full of haters

This may be a failure of the platform protocol. I wish the protocol was: each sentence written must be true. Grok ranking people's posts based on truth will be interesting.