cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/1795192
Take this screenshot for example. This is the front page of Lemmy right now. Virtually every post will make the reader feel bad and depressed. It’s all doombait, ragebait - and if it’s a meme, it is usually a meme that leaves an annoyed taste in your mouth at someone or something.
This is what drove me and many others away from Reddit, and a decentralized platform does not have to have this problem in theory - but it Is currently experiencing it now. Reddit has no reason to change their depressing content because it drives much engagement and creates revenue. But, for a decentralized platform to just be filled with ragebait and doombait is not good and exposes inherent problems with the platform right now.
What’s more is that most of these posts are posted by accounts created in the past month, leading me to believe that people from Reddit who are used to getting karma dopamine from getting people riled up are just doing the same thing here.
I don’t really know how Lemmy can fix this problem - it is something that we really need to be aware of as a community. Don’t just upvote something because it makes you annoyed and you want more people to see it - perhaps we need to downvote ragebait and doombait when we see it so that the platform doesn’t become a depressing echo chamber.
Not the op, but I think I get what they're getting at. I have been scrolling lemmy a lot this last week and everytime I see something about the climate catastrophe, unions being fucked over, terrible politicians etc I up vote it. These are all important things, and by up voting I feel like I'm čsupporting the cause" and "raising awareness".
But I do wonder if it's actually very helpful, for whatever cause, for me, or for lemmy. It makes scrolling lemmy stressful and depressing, which is accurate for how the world is, but it doesn't really make things better. I feel like I'd rather be reading something interesting or informative that might make the world a better place, whether it's by actually making real chnage, or just me learning something meaningful.
"Starbucks fucks it's employees!" "Trump lies about soemthing!" "the world is on fire!" are always going to drive engagement because these things upset us and we want to do a small act to make ourselves feel less powerless. But I'm not sure they're really doing more than preaching to the choir, and leaving said choir frazzled and distracted.