No Stupid Questions

That’s why I post pictures of opossums, bats, and raccoons…

I am tired of living in a world with all of these problems. Whether or not I have the luxury to ignore them is besides the point.

Even if you ditched the internet for a while, the real world is fucked and getting more so every day and the only way you still wouldn't notice is if you live in a little bubble completely isolated from the rest of existence.

What do you expect? You're on lemmy. Half the userbase is doomers, dude.

Thank you for putting how I feel browsing Lemmy into words. I really hope that more wholesome communities can gain more traction soon.

IMO the issue isn't that there's too much negative content, but that there isn't enough of everything else. I'd encourage people to post, engage with and signal boost other kinds of content they're interested in. May just be that politics and social issues are some of the most popular interests in the community.

You are so on point. I come here mainly for chuckles, some light hearted discussion and memes but what do is see most? Rage, rage and more rage.

Politics are dumb but very, very important. I'm exhausted, but I can't let that stop me.

i get this way sometimes. the answer is easy; dont read it. its just that simple. if its only the headline in a list giving you angst, it feels like you might have other issues.

you said it yourself.. its a diet you feed yourself. its all in your own hands. dont read it.

We talk about positive things.

Like Linux.

There's a genocide going on with what appears to be more or less the full support of the countries that make up the defence union my country is a part of.

There's war in Europe.

I find those topics worthy of discussion, and any social media where this is not actively discussed seems to me to be a smokescreen more than anything.

Of course tragic realities like the genocide we are complacent in, climate change, war in Europe, Russian propaganda and the rise of the far right is going to be actively discussed. It concerns more or less everyone who uses this platform, and they are the most important issues of our time. It's not about negativity, it's about coming to terms with reality and seeking to understand it.

That said, the communities I follow are largely apolitical stuff that interests me. Woodworking, knitting, gardening, owls, art, and the Fediverse. With the exception of [email protected] and [email protected], I let the political stuff come through the cracks rather than actively following it.

I also have a Piefed account on which I follow news communities but actively filter out Trump and Musk. I can see how Amercians still feel the need to talk about these men, but at the end of the day they're just fascist attention whores.

I don't have that problem, especially on lemmy. My feed here is mostly about taking action, not doomerism.

In short: Yes. It's dragging me down, too.

I'd like to focus on positivity. I mean negativity comes with strong emotions and I don't want to get rid of it. But I'd like to see more positive things, too. People sharing side projects and nice things they've done and created. There needs to be a better balance. Because this doesn't depict life or the entire perspective.

I don't mind when bad news is posted. It's important to know these things. What bothers me is how the top comment is always some low-effort defeatest bullshit like "and there will never be consequences."

The world is depressing, and if we just stick our heads in the sand and ignore it all because that feels better nothing's going to fucking change.

Sure, focus on positivity so you don't collapse into a depressive blob, but the idea that we should ignore the state of the world because it's unpleasant is terrible.

One of Lemmy's most toxic communities are the Linux people. I'm actually a huge fan of Linux, but the simple fact I use Windows as well constantly earns me personal attacks and extremely negative responses.

My solution (to this and many other issues you describe) is honestly to not read the replies any longer... I just say my bit, and I leave.

I've also taken to watching comedy shows that touch upon numerous topics of all the crazy shit going on. The Daily show has been a great outlet for me, and I'm not even a Democrat (I'm independent). It's just nice to see a popular form of media clearly states "yes, this is crazy. You're not crazy, THIS is just f*king crazy."

Edit: For example, Trump recently claimed he never said "lock her up" the other day to Hillary. I saw this on Lemmy first. John Stewart's reaction a day or two later was perfect, and pointed out the gaslighting taking place.

I just feel like you have to find ways to laugh at all this crazy stuff... So comedy shows help. Just keep your guard up whenever consuming politically charged media, of course.

I've unsubscribed from worldnews and technology yesterday. I couldn't bare to read yet another scareporn article pretending to be tech news.

The posts and comments were making me feel worse faster than the interesting information were making me happier.

I'll probably take a short brake and try to sort the news from clickbate and propaganda later, possibly creating a new, properly moderated community.

I would argue that doom scrolling is self harm with no productive value.

My household pays for a subscription to a journal we like, which dives deep into topics of interest to us. We learn a LOT more than doom scrollers here know about. For example, doom scrollers will tell you that South Korea's birthrate is so low because cost of living is so high, which is wrong. What else are they wrong about? I think, probably most things.

But of course doom scrollers are less informed. How would they be informed? They don't pay for the news with money, they pay for it by consuming exploitative rage bait. And exploitative rage bait's purpose isn't to inform you, it's to convince you to consume more. So the truth isn't an objective of this content at all. How can you be confident that a person is treating you well by giving you the truth, when they are explicitly relying on a model meant to harm you for more money? It's like trusting Coca Cola to give you nutrition advice.

And what are the long term effects of trusting rage bait sources? Well, you've probably seen it. They lose all faith in humanity, institutions, everything that once gave their lives structure. They become depressed and give up because if the world is so bad, why bother trying to fix it? They become overwhelmed by the long term effects of hopeless media.

If I consumed only rage bait media for a full month, I am confident I would become meaner, less informed, and more combative. And that's what we all associate with doom scrollers, right? It's not a coincidence. I totally agree with your point, by the way. It's like consuming fast food every day. You feel like you're learning something, but you aren't.

I get my news intermittently from what I believe to be a reliable source, and then I stop. I block all ragebait on this platform, and I block users who I can tell want me to get angry.

Some will argue I am being irresponsible, but they're wrong. Blocking toxic people is the responsible thing to do. They aren't trying to inform me.

I think it's because a lot of things are bad (and many are getting worse) yet the only power most people have to do anything about them is to raise awareness of the issues, which means engaging with negative news. Sometimes it can be hard to tell what's real news and what's rage bait; sometimes non-news can seem like news when it's part of an ongoing pattern (such as "Elon's dumb take of the day"). I think there's also some degree of trying to maintain one's sense of reality. To the previous example, despite being a massive fuckwit, Elon is still among the wealthiest people in the world, is incredibly influential, and has maintained some degree of fanboy army; posting/reading/discussing/upvoting an article about what dumb thing he said today is grounding for some folks because it reinforces reality by demonstrating that yes, he is still a fuckwit, even though somehow everything still hasn't come crashing down around him like it karmically should.

Yes I get tired of constant negativity, even though I myself do what I can to not contribute to it.

It’s exhausting

Yes, it's tiring. A lot of people and communities on various platforms are cultivating negativity, focusing on bad things. Even a simple meme about a cat can produce a comment section dominated by replies about how dangerous cats are for wild animals. Okay? Can we have a laugh because the cat did something silly?

I read that our brains are more likely to react to negativity, as that was a defensive mechanism in the past. But today, the internet can mess up our stimulus very, very badly. I don't even open most of these posts you've mentioned, I ignore them like white noise. You can't constantly bathe in that information and be mentally fine.

When you are a pessimist, your entire world view is negative. So, it's not really possible to get tired of that.

I've discovered a way to overcome this: turn off the phone. It's not the content that is bad, it's our addiction to it.

I think you can also see something fundamentally positive in the critical attitude of many Lemmy users: namely the fact that criticism of undesirable developments in politics, society, the economy and so on is practiced here at all. In my opinion, this is important and should not be taken for granted. If only because it is impossible for so many people in numerous countries around the world to express their opinions freely and criticize their governments or powerful people in their society.

In any case, I think that a certain fundamental skepticism towards the existing power structures in politics, media and business is something of a unifying element that motivates many people to participate in Fediverse, after all, this platform is an alternative to the centrally managed social media providers and their functional logics.

Nevertheless, I think your post is important because it shows that all the negativity that goes hand in hand with a critical examination of the numerous problems in the real world is extremely off-putting for many users. This is of course problematic both for the mass appeal of the Fediverse and to a certain degree probably also for the mental health of the user base.

Unfortunately, I don’t have an answer as to how to deal with this in a meaningful way. However, I try to stay positive and hope for the best.

I'm not focusing on the things that don't affect me in some way, and I'm still miserable.

I agree that staying informed is extremely depressing. But what would you have me do, stick my head in the sand and ignore what my government it's doing? Ignore the growing control and power the rich capitalist ruling class have over us all year by year? Or ignore what the growing fascist powers within my nation and other important places like the USA are doing? Or how the global climate for humans is collapsing and what's causing it?

Most of these things directly impact me right now, and will continue to have an even greater impact as time goes on.

I'm not focusing on news stories that have no impact on me. I don't care what Elon Musk had for breakfast, what the latest hot celebrity is doing, or what the Royal family is up to. Even so, only focusing on what affects me and my family is a huge, deeply depressing weight that is ever growing.

I agree, it's awful. But the world, for all the beauty it also contains, is growing ever more awful day by day. I just can't find it in me to bury my head in the sand and hope it'll all turn out fine, so instead I stay informed and stay miserable :-(

We can't fight back if we don't understand our enemy and what they're doing to us. We can't make informed decisions about who to vote for, for example, if we don't follow those political parties and politicians track records, their history of decisions and statements and so on.

People who ignore the day to day stuff and then show up to do 10 minutes of bullet point blurb research to figure out who to vote for are not likely to gain a clear understanding of the parties or candidates true beliefs and intentions. The same is true for companies, we need to stay informed on what they say, what they actually do, so we can be informed on whether we want to work for them, or use their products and services, etc etc.

We must stay informed. They want us uninformed so they can manipulate us with ease. Ignorance is bliss, but at what price?

Anyway, it's a quandary, and a sad one, I agree for sure 🫂

I didn't design it, but it's the face of reality.

I try to remind myself that social media, and yes, that includes Lemmy, does not reflect the rest of the aspects of my life - which is overall positive.

Subscribe to the communities you like, and stick to your subscriptions' newsfeed. Much, much better experience.

Of course.

I just turn off my socials for a bit and it's all good.

Yes you can, and should, ignore how crummy the world is sometimes. Outside of the good you can do with your own two hands, there's nothing you can do to change it unless you're a billionaire and a legislator will actually take your phone calls.