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submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) by seal_of_approval@sh.itjust.works to c/general@lemmy.world

It feels like people are a lot nicer here than on Twitter and Reddit, and even when people disagree, it's generally civil and not an all-out flame war. Also, there's no algorithm promoting outrage all the time.

For me, the anticipation of toxicity was a huge deterrent for me ever participating in real discussions, but here I feel like I can be myself.

I think it's healthier this way.

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[-] Candelestine@lemmy.world 62 points 1 year ago

A small handful of people are working to change that, you find them here and there. Easy to identify as they downvote based on "I don't like that.", they're not really capable of greater complexity usually. Or that's how it seems anyway.

We should expect it to get worse though, as our population grows. It's inevitable, the internet is the internet. Our initially strong culture is an excellent sign though, if our growth continues at a measured pace, we should be able to maintain it for some time.

[-] the_kung_fu_emu@lemmy.world 11 points 1 year ago

We have the momentum now, and that makes a world of difference. Lemmy isn't beholden to any "engagement" metrics, so all the dark patterns that infect other social media have no incentive here. The internet wasn't always toxic (as a general statement). People engage more in conflict than in an interaction with no winners and losers, we're just hardwired that way. The "Web 2.0" crowd hijacked that to keep us in front of more ads for longer, "Hur-dur, number go up." Without those institutional incentives I'm very hopeful that the strong foundation of the Lemmy community can "hug it out" with the few rage baiters that are bringing their bad habits here.

[-] Candelestine@lemmy.world 5 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Bad, nasty people are not few in number, you're describing a very significant percentage of the Earth's population. Billions of them, probably. My irl sample has a great many, at least.

But we can certainly do our best. If we want to see a certain type of world, we are ultimately responsible for fighting for it, or we'll never even deserve it in the first place.

edit billions, not trillions

[-] FuntyMcCraiger@sh.itjust.works 6 points 1 year ago

I don't believe that's the case, we have a tendency to put bad people in a spotlight so they end up being a part of our life more than they should, but not because they are so common.

I think it doesn't help that a lot of our understanding of how people act is based in debunked psychology studies from an era where cocaine was part of a healthy and complete breakfast.

[-] Candelestine@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago

This is a worthy debate. But I think to really get anywhere you will need new population studies like that.

I'm going off my strength in the subject of history, mainly. Norms were once quite different from today. Humans did not naturally acknowledge rights, they acknowledged tribes of various sorts.

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this post was submitted on 08 Jul 2023
990 points (96.8% liked)

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