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Social Media are drugs and their CEOs are billionaire drug dealers (piefed.social)
submitted 4 months ago by to c/showerthoughts@lemmy.world
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[–] 34 points 4 months ago (14 children)

Mastodon was specifically designed to be less addictive than xitter.

Lemmy is a lot like the old Reddit. In the current version of Reddit, there is an algorithm that fills your feed with stupid nonsense that is apparently very popular among the majority. I guess that makes it even more addictive than what it was long ago.

Anyway, comparing modern social media with drugs isn’t far fetched.

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  • [–] 7 points 4 months ago (2 children)

    Reverse chronological is second best to synchronous social media.

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  • [–] 2 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (1 child)

    Soo… is that like newest on top and oldest at the bottom or which way does it go?

    Anyway, my Madtodon feed is really boring. I don’t really care enough about anyone, so there’s usually nothing worth reading. Following hashtags is a bit nicer, but definitely not addictive in the least. Hence, I don’t really use that account for anything. About once a month I take a look at what’s going on, come to the same conclusion as always, and close the app. Well done Mastodon!

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  • [–] 4 points 4 months ago (8 children)

    I love that this place still thinks it's any different than Reddit.

    The algorithm changes little.

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  • [–] 8 points 4 months ago (2 children)

    The algorithm changes little.

    The algorithm is the problem. Lemmy is like coke after they removed the cocaine. It's good, but it's not nearly as addictive.

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  • [–] 2 points 4 months ago (3 children)

    The fundamentals are still the same, so in that sense you’re absolutely correct.

    There are major differences that make Lemmy better though.

    • it’s smaller
    • the UI doesn’t suck
    • you can use whatever client you like
    • it’s federated. If you don’t like this instance, make an account in another.
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  • [–] 1 point 4 months ago (2 children)

    Sure sounds like addictive features to me

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  • [–] 2 points 4 months ago (1 child)

    There is no one behind the scenes trying to make Lemmy more addictive like seen at other major social media giants where employees openly talk about being like drug dealers.

    Lemmy is also not using algorithms to push political content or advertising. While these both exist on Lemmy, no one is being paid to push these into your feed.

    https://www.politico.com/news/2025/11/22/were-basically-pushers-court-filings-allege-staff-at-social-media-giants-compared-their-platforms-to-drugs-00666181

    https://counterhate.com/blog/what-are-algorithms-and-how-do-they-make-social-media-more-harmful/

    Anything can be addictive, but the defining feature is causing problems in your daily activities of life. I have yet to hear about Lemmy causing this issue but I have seen this on other platforms such as FB, Snap, Insta, X, etc.

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  • [–] 2 points 4 months ago*

    I certainly do use Lemmy every day, so it's definitely attractive. It doesn't seem to be causing any harm yet, so I guess it's still far from being addictive in the technical sense of the word.

    Just remembered that Reddit has streaks and achievements now. Could you call that a dark pattern? Either way, it's definitely manipulating the users into spending more time on Reddit than they otherwise would, and that's the first step towards addiction. IMO that sort of thing is clearly unethical and pretty dark in general. By contrast, Lemmy doesn't have that sort of "engagement enhancing" corporate cancer.

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