people won’t be addicted to it anymore

Wishful thinking. I'm wasting more time on Lemmy then I ever did on Reddit/Facebook/Twitter/...

However, the biggest advantage to me is that I can filter out what I don't want to see, not be forced to accept what is thrown at me or leav. (I did the latter on all) I now have the option to hide away from 'normals' again.

When you look at the world and see what is considered 'normal', who in their right mind would want to be like that?

I think the idea that our behavior is somehow related to our systems and not our demographics is the problem. I think the internet is going to change us, not the other way around.

People don't have to like "better" things, and often they simply don't. This is the flaw of laissez-faire, where we're not perfectly rational actors.

Right now the average Fediverse user is an early-adopter type, usually techy. These people are often smarter than average, hence why they wind up in technical fields. Eventually they will not be the majority though, the avg intelligence/education in here will drop to the global avg. So will our behavior.

The changes that people hate at Twitter/meta/reddit? Those are just evidence of malignancy in society. Not sure there's much to heal about the internet individually. It's more systemic. Anyways before I grow a thicker beard and start writing a manifesto or something, just go out there get as big as you can and eat the richest person you see. That's how you fix the problem.

TikTok and Threads still exist, though.

The advertisers, corporate shills, and bot providers are retooling to attack the fediverse.

It may feel like its 1999 again for a minute, but the $$ driven counter offensive will come.

it’s open-source and de-centralized as well, which omits censorship

Not necessarily. It simply allows people to leave an instance that is applying censorship. Admins and mods on instances can essentially do whatever they want. The fediverse could have the same problems the big tech sites do. If most people congregate to single, popular instances of the fediverse, that instance essentially becomes a non-distributed social media site. Then all they have to do is start de-federating and start imposing their own restrictive rules and we're right back to where we started.

It's exactly what everyone is scared of with Threads coming into the Fediverse. If they, or another big instance, sucks most users into their instance they effectively can neuter the fediverse. In order to prevent this, all users need to be aware of moderation on their instances and draconian moderation on other instances. We need to be aware of de-federation for instances to spot those trying to isolate themselves as a way to control their users (instead of self-preservation).

The fediverse will fall under the same pressures that caused the censorship in other areas when it gets big enough.

I'd share your optimism if Zuck hadn't come out with Threads to the apparently very positive reception it's had. A lot of people who are on Twitter are also on Facebook/Instagram and the ease of extending those accounts to Threads means that most of them, when they get fed up with Musk, will just trade one giant social media corporation for another and nothing will change.

Seen it happen many times before but not 3 big sites at the same time. I don't think Twitter, Reddit, and Meta are going to be gone in a few years but are certainly past their peaks and driving away users to places like this. The cycle continues.

Maybe, this is exactly what they wanted? Did they want to corral us into the Social Media that would ultimately suit them the best? Reddit and Twitter where sacrificial lambs?

Unlikely. Zuck can make another Facebook and millions will still flock to it thinking they've 'escaped' Facebook.

Spez can make a Reddit 'successor' and millions will still flock to it thinking they've 'escaped' Reddit.

The point is, we need to dethrone the root of the problem.

I'm addicted to it :)

I'm going through some personal stuff and reading Lemmy helps take my mind off it, and due to the smallish size and lack of ads and other bullcrap it doesn't repel me as easily as other similar sites... I'm even using an app, which I never did for Reddit.