I deleted the apps. I don’t visit those sites in alternative ways but I crave it man. I miss doom scrolling and I ended up on yt shorts. Way less of the time and my field seems to avoid viral trends so I guess it’s my nicotine patch: I still do it’s just not that harmful I guess. How are you guys dealing with it? Do you consider lemmy ass addictive/harmful as the mainstream socials?
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I struggle. I love social media. Lemmy adds to the depression because somehow every post is political and I get to see all the bad things the government is doing every day. I'm shutting it all down. If I need a social fix I can play an MMO lol
NGL. You had me till the last line.
Haha! That line is a special little tip only for me. I'm a hopeless EverQuest addict.
Get yourself extensions to block youtube shorts and convert it to regular videos. Use phone apps to do the same, I believe revanced and grayjay both do this
Personally I find there to be less new daily content on lemmy, so it ends up self limiting as I see the same posts again. Might just be what I’m subbed to, and or how I sort. But I do end up spending less time here than I did reddit, or I currently do on youtube.
I think it comes down to an insufficient user base than is required to get the previous fix of social media.
This was a problem in the early days of Facebook as well...
Leechblock and unhook are required browser extensions for me.
YouTuber is extra tricky because I can easily convince myself that I'm not wasting time, I'm "learning". Even though I doubt I'll ever need to know how to build a mud hut with a secret swimming pool underneath....
In general, I found if I remove the addictive elements from YouTube or whatever, as opposed to blocking the website entirely, I'm more likely to stick to being sober. I treat my phone the same way, I use YAM Launcher to help remove distractions.
Lemmy is a lot less addictive for me than personalized algorithm-driven TikTok/Reels/Shorts type stuff and has better quality content, but there's also a lot less content. I blocked internet access for Instagram and other apps on my phone and now I ended up on YT shorts on my computer also
Do you consider lemmy **ass **addictive/harmful as the mainstream socials?
That's a very funny typo. But also kinda relevant. Lemmy's sorting "algorithm" is just a very basic sort. There's no personal tuning, just basic "does this post have more activity than this other one" so it's as un addictive as it can get really. Short of purposefully trying to be bad.
Yes but since its users are mostly reposting from sites trained on said algorithms. There is certainly a "trickle down" effect.
Posts that weren't popular on Reddit, or on the news website aren't going to be seen and then posted here...
"Science once again proves common sense correct."
Social media is just ragebait for me, lol. I have a Facebook account that I haven't used since 2015 and that's it. 🤷
I haven’t used social media since 2011. Personally I don’t see the draw because it all lacks authenticity.
Can confirm, social media was making me depressed

I'm just on FB for the Messenger, maximized to ignore the rest, since they make it all but impossible to use their network with third parties. Hmmm, sounds like Reddit now that I think about it, but FB did that move first. The hardest part of changing social media or any communications is getting the ones you want to stay connected with to use better alternatives. Again with the Reddit comparison, but look at how many stick with that still rather than branching out to a new thing like Lemmy. Or encrypted email.
But I agree with the title suggestion, any immersion of a single thing is damaging, and social media is by its nature and design addictive. If you can't control your intake, you should avoid what you can altogether.
This might be unpopular but i genuinely believe it is our responsibility to be aware of the horrors.
Except then it makes you too depressed to do anything and now people are complaining that you're burdening them with your being depressed
That was my first thought. Ignorance is bliss.
