If the thought of a social media platform not existing gives you anxiety then I think you need to take a break from it.
I don't know you or your life but I don't think spending a lot of time on these platforms is mentally healthy regardless.
Anxiety as in some organization is having control over the free flow of information. The same anxiety as in the thought of certain countries censoring the internet. Not as in a social media addiction, although I'll have to admit I do have some addiction to Reddit/Lemmy. But it's more of the fear of the future. Reddit was probably one of the biggest platforms that doesn't have censorship as much as other platforms (or at least that's how I perceived it), Reddit becoming tyrannical means people lose the last "free" platform. This means people in the future now have a different worldview. I mean Reddit already doesn't allow criticism of Steve Huffman, they might as well start pushing political agendas he favors, like pro-corporate, anti-consumer views. Even if I wasn't addicted to social media, a lot other will be. Lemmy being a competitor allowed some people to leave Reddit and not be subjected to propaganda.
Maybe I do need to touch grass lol, I'm getting a bit paranoid about evil corporations.
Look at the comment section under some random news story and you find either comments about Hunter Biden, comments supporting racism/slavery, comments promoting Marxism-Lennism, comments spreading religion, conspiracy theories, comments complaining about youtube censorship, even thought your racist ass comment is still up there for over a year. Like who even wants to look at youtube comments.
Saw a study the other day that estimated that in 2021 about 45% of internet traffic was bots. Don't believe every comment you read is someone who believes what they are saying either. There's been a few cases of troll farms of people getting paid to push trash opinions. When an ideology can't defend itself with reason they start screaching.
I'd have gone with a Kbin server. Lemmy just happened to fit more what I like in Reddit and its interface. The servers I mainly interact with seem calm and healthy enough and I get to see fun posts, shared articles and handfuls of discussions here and there. If there was no alternative? I'd just have moved on. Either federated social networks (Or something similar, one day) thrive, or social networks are all bound to gradually become pits of hostility no one wants to or can moderate. Just takes a single rich idiot looking to capitalize on his "product" to tip the scale in the wrong direction. I like connecting with people, having calm conversations about low-stake stuff with strangers. Keeping the heavier stuff for those I know and understand. Hasn't been possible in places like Twitter for ages and if the smaller, chill subreddits I like are all bound to see more spam and negativity? Pass. I'd just get back to reading novels regularly. Which I still should, honestly.
Probably Raddle.me. it seems like a somewhat privacy focused version of Reddit that has their terms of service has a section against bigotry and far right ideology.
I'll have to disagree. Technology is a vague term, technology can encompass anything. Technological advancement is what allowed people to live longer, to explore more of the world, to communicate with many people around the world. It's why we don't die from some random cut.
If you mean as in phones, computers, and the internet. Well, you used to have to go to a library and find a book in order to get information, now you can do a simple search on the internet. You can find any food recipes, fix broken things inside your home, find out how human anatomy works without the embarassment of asking a person, find out how... erm... reproduction works, even though school was supppsed to teach that in science class, don't think some kid is gonna ask the teacher if he didn't understand something in class about it. You can order food over the phone, and now even via the internet (yes its expensive af, but the option is there). If you didn't understand something in school, internet to the rescue again. There's is so many wonderful things about the internet.
Yes there are downsides, but in my opinion, the benefits are better than the negative consequences.
I’ve heard this argument before. I guess I just think I’d be happier if I was more ignorant. I think most people would be too. Does knowing all these things really make our lives better? Sure we live longer, but does that really matter? I’d rather die dumb, young, and happy than smart, old, and miserable.