Most people will probably disagree and say that I shouldn’t be here if I don’t like it, but yeah, like the title said. I switched over from Reddit for various reasons, and at first it was nice, but now it’s making me depressed just casually browsing Lemmy. Everything here is so drab and negative, sometimes even downright hateful. Everything sucks, here’s a list of companies you should never use, here’s people that do horrible things, here’s a bunch of complaints about stuff. This is why the world sucks, this is why your favourite thing is actually stupid, this is why you shouldn’t enjoy xyz anymore.
At least half of the content on Lemmy is about American politics or how they affect the rest of the world, even on meme and shitpost subs you can’t escape from the constant barrage of politically charged content. And when it’s not American politics it’s American lifestyle, like I get that america dominates the internet but I sincerely do not give a shit about your egg prices or your celebrities when I’m browsing memes to wind down.
And on top of that there’s a distinct arrogance that permeates the fediverse, where people act like they’re better than others for being conscious, and you’re stupid for not boycotting 99 percent of brands and eating vegan and ditching cars and using european FOSS applications on refurbished Linux devices, etc.
Honestly I’m baffled when people ask stuff like “why don’t more people join Lemmy?” Because I honestly would not recommend it to my friends. While it’s nice in some ways, it is also so very exhausting, and for me personally, worse for my mental health than Reddit ever was.
Rant over and obligatory disclaimer: I did not mean to insult anyone, I don’t have anything against the ideologies and lifestyles mentioned in my post, I simply wanted to share my personal opinions.
- Find the casual communities.
- Curate your feed
- Stick to non US communities?
- Realise that the world is not in great shape right now, people are angry and scared - of course online spaces are going to reflect that.
CURATE YOUR FEED
I know it’s not easy. But once you block a lot of the crap, the remaining stuff is great.
I compiled a list of casual communities awhile ago https://lemmy.world/post/16327122 - I’d strongly recommend curating your own feed of communities through subscriptions and ditch the all/local feeds. Block the politics communities.
We’re in a profoundly fucked up timeline right now.
Silence is complicity.
The bad needs to be brought to the surface all day, every day, so we can address it. People MUST be made aware of who the bad actors are so they can be countered.
Because if we don’t, and you think what you’re experiencing right now is depressing…well, just you wait and see.
Had Reddit not gone down the shithole it’s in today, it would honestly look the same. Right now is not a good time for the USA, which means politics will ripple throughout most feeds.
It’s so bad, a time traveler from a mere 10 years ago would be shitting bricks. A democracy that has had global military dominance/presence for decades is about to turn to full fascism. We have military bases, in countries we are actively being hostile to. And to top it off, a pretend president keeps trying to annex Canada as an 51st state and start WWIII.
You hear people say stuff like this sometimes like the news is making me depressed. Is it the news or is it what’s going on in the world? It’s worse right now man. I mean it just is. It ain’t the fault of the website. It’s absolutely worse than it was a year ago. That’s not even a question.
Sorry, but I think that we’re just representing the world as it is.
Sometimes the world situation is so bad that everything gets affected.
I’m indigenous Canadian and whenever I have these discussions with my non-native friends … I tell them … now you know how I’ve always felt and still feel.
This is why minorities and people of colour constantly feel depressed, unwell, unhappy and negative … we’ve also developed ways to cope, one of which is to just normalize how all this is just part of our reality … it doesn’t mean we accept it but choose to live with it while also fighting it
https://www.health.com/condition/ptsd/generational-trauma
I heard a lot of stories coming up about ‘the bad old days’ and how those times affected the presant day. I never really beleived it then, but I’m starting to see how it might be true.
Stay safe and keep the public informed on what’s going on in the res. We won’t hear it on the news, but a lot of us care deeply about what happens to your community.
Man, you got both shit ends of that stick… being part of an ostracized demographic, and being a Canadian living through yet another Trump dictatorship.
If there’s any silver lining to the “51st state” rhetoric, it’s the opportunity to help other Canadians understand and relate to your hardships as a member of a demographic living under the threat of colonization. I hope you guys (as a country) can come together in solidarity, and best of luck to you personally.
The biggest positive from all this abusive/disrespectful behavior from trump is how united we have become as a country like never before Plus, the fact that we may actually avoid electing our shitty conservative/authoritarian version of trump
I would say that it isn’t necessarily just the situation, but importantly the trend that’s going in the wrong direction (at an increasingly faster pace). Also we just have way more exposure to (miss-)information and our ability to properly filter and absorb it just hasn’t scaled as much.
Because objectively most of us are still living very good lifes and there have been crisis in the past aswell.
I was reading some comic essays by Jean Shepard [he wrote the stories “A Christmas Story” was based on.]
He knew he was poor growing up, but in those days a little money could buy you some nice stuff.
For 5 cents he could go to a movie theater that really did look like a palace.
These days a comic book costs a kid an hour’s pay, and a concert is a week’s pay if you’re lucky.
I think this is what all social media looks like lately.
Recommend to not think of scrolling as winding down. Its never winding down when you doomscroll or make your attention span smaller.
Books are great for winding down and not overwhelming your eyes and brain. Podcasts are fun to listen to while doing chores. Drinking a nice hot cup of tea is the best winding down.
All social media should be consumed lightly. Its not that great for our mental health.
May I suggest reading “Anna Karinina”?
In all seriousness, Lemmy’s only alright. I with you on a lot of it. I don’t think I’m as effected by it, but I also think a lot of people are coping with the insult of Trump and more by posting. It makes them feel not alone. As an aside, someone made an instance that filters repetitive content. It only got posted about today, but who knows? Might be interesting to catch a unique post that might have otherwise been buried.
Yeah, I know what you’re saying, especially when I browse “All.”
That’s why I generally just subscribe to comms that I like (about non-politics non-tech things) and browse “Subscribed”. Then when I’m ready after that, then I browse All. Or maybe I just skip All.
click here for a list of communities that are NOT politics, tech, or meme -related.
Most are currently active (except for the ones with a * which were less active last I checked) Sometimes politics, tech or memes sneak in but they’re not the focus.
GENERAL DISCUSSION / QUESTIONS
- !actual_discussion@lemmy.ca *
- !asklemmy@lemmy.world
- !casualconversation@lemm.ee
- !casualuk@feddit.uk
- !dull_mens_club@lemmy.world
- !forumlibre@jlai.lu
- !general@lemmy.world
- !nostupidquestions@lemmy.world
- !goodoffmychest@lemmy.world
- !preguntalealemmy@feddit.cl
- !rant@lemmy.sdf.org
ART / PHOTOS
- !artporn@lemm.ee
- !astrophotography@lemmy.world
- !accidentalrenaissance@lemmy.blahaj.zone
- !badrealestate@feddit.uk *
- !collage@lemmy.ml *
- !desire_paths@sh.itjust.works *
- !fakehistoryporn@lemmy.world *
- !fediclicks@viewfinder.pro *
- !filmsframes@lemmy.world
- !foodphotos@sh.itjust.works *
- !gameart@sopuli.xyz
- !grasweeti@slrpnk.net
- !hmmm@lemmy.world
- !imadethis@lemm.ee
- !imaginary@reddthat.com
- !inhabitedbeauty@lemmy.world
- !liminalspace@lemmy.world
- !nocontextpics@lemmy.world
- !pics@lemmy.world
- !pictures@lemm.ee
- !pixelart@lemmy.ml *
- !sillydrawingrequests@sopuli.xyz
- !traditional_art@lemmy.world
- !trams_trolleys_streetcars@lemmy.blahaj.zone
- !wallpapers@lemmy.ca
- !52weeksofart@lemmy.world
ANIMALS
- !bats@lemmy.world
- !catposting@lemmy.blahaj.zone
- !cat@lemmy.world
- !catsstandingup@lemmy.world *
- !opossums@lemmy.world
- !scrungycats@lemmy.world *
- !superbowl@lemmy.world
COMICS / GRAPHIC NOVELS
- !alanmoore@feddit.uk *
- !comics@lemmy.blahaj.zone
- !comicstrips@lemmy.world
- !eurographicnovels@lemm.ee
- !truecomics@midwest.social *
- !garfield@lemmy.world
- !outofcontextcomics@lemmy.world
- !unix_surrealism@lemmy.sdf.org
ENTERTAINMENT
- !80smusic@lemmy.world
- !90smusic@lemmy.world *
- !90s_tv@lemmy.sdf.org
- !badmovies@lemmy.world
- !bmoviebonanza@lemmy.world
- !boardgames@sopuli.xyz
- !cultfilms@lemux.minnix.dev *
- !dwarffortress@lemmy.ml
- !edm@reddthat.com
- !fullmoviesonyoutube@lemm.ee
- !gothindustrial@lemmy.world
- !iasip@sh.itjust.works *
- !martialartsmovies@lemm.ee *
- !metal@lemmy.world
- !movies@lemm.ee
- !music@lemmy.world
- !pokemon@lemm.ee
- !pokemon@lemmy.world
- !pokemongo@lemmy.world *
- !punk_rock@lemmy.ca
- !ska@lemmy.blahaj.zone
- !thrashmetal@lemmy.world
- !trailers@lemmy.blahaj.zone
GENRES / STYLES
- !cassettefuturism@lemm.ee
- !cosmichorror@lemm.ee
- !cyberpunk@lemmy.zip
- !goblincore@lemmy.blahaj.zone
- !goth@lemmy.ml *
- !Goth@lemmy.world *
- !lovecraft_mythos@lemmy.world
- !mullets@lemmy.ca *
- !raygungothic@lemm.ee
- !streetwear@lemmy.world *
- !the_heinlein_society@lemmy.world
- !vampires@lemmy.zip
- !weirdcore@sopuli.xyz
- !witchcraft@lemmy.ml *
- !witchesvspatriarchy@lemmy.ca *
HISTORY
- !ancientcoins@lemmy.world
- !ancienthistory@slrpnk.net
- !askhistorians@lemmy.world *
- !historyartifacts@lemmy.world
- !historicalpropaganda@lemmy.blahaj.zone
- !history@lemmy.world
- !historyporn@lemmy.world
- !historyruins@lemmy.world
- !historyillustrations@lemmy.world
- !vintageads@sh.itjust.works *
INFORMATION / KNOWLEDGE
- !buyitforlife@slrpnk.net
- !catastrophicfailure@lemmy.world *
- !creepywikipedia@lemmy.world
- !dataisbeautiful@lemmy.ml
- !documentaries@lemmy.cafe
- !esa@feddit.nl
- !explainlikeimfive@lemmy.world
- !humanities@beehaw.org
- !math@lemmy.world
- !mealtimevideos@lemmy.cafe
- !recommendations@lemmy.world
- !solarpunk@slrpnk.net
- !til@lemmy.world
- !vexillology@lemmy.world *
- !whatisthisthing@lemmy.world
- !wikipedia@lemmy.world
- !youshouldknow@lemmy.world
OTHER
- !andfinally@feddit.uk
- !academiagonewild@lemmy.world *
- !chaoticgood@sopuli.xyz
- !internetisbeautiful@lemm.ee
- !internetisbeautiful@lemmy.ml *
- !internetisbeautiful@lemmy.world *
- !mildlyinteresting@lemmy.world
- !nowhereelsetoshare@sh.itjust.works
- !pbsod@lemmy.ohaa.xyz
- !publictransport@slrpnk.net
- !stick@sh.itjust.works *
- !sumo@lemmy.world *
- !shortstories@literature.cafe
- !treehuggers@slrpnk.net
- !woahdude@lemmy.world *
- !youcantparktheremate@feddit.uk *
FEDIVERSE
- !fedibridge@lemmy.dbzer0.com
- !fedigrow@lemm.ee
- !fediverse@lemmy.world
- !fediverselore@lemmy.ca
- !lemmyapps@lemmy.world
- !comm_revival@lemmy.dbzer0.com *
- !yepowertrippinbastards@lemmy.dbzer0.com
FINDING NEW/GOOD COMMUNITIES ON LEMMY
click here for a list of meme communities
MEMES, SOCIAL MEDIA REPOSTS, AND HUMOR
(NON-POLITICAL)Most of these are currently active. (except for the ones with a * which were less active last I checked).
Sometimes politics sneaks in but that’s not the focus.Sometimes these include politics but that’s not the primary focus.- !onehundredninetysix@lemmy.blahaj.zone
- !196@pawb.social
- !19684@lemmy.blahaj.zone
- !2meirl4meirl@lemmy.world
- !4chan@lemmy.world
- !animemes@ani.social
- !antiquememesroadshow@lemmy.world
- !atheistmemes@lemmy.world
- !bonehurtingjuice@lemmy.ca
- !comedyheaven@lemmy.world
- !crumbgrabber@lemm.ee *
- !curatedtumblr@sh.itjust.works
- !dankchristianmemes@lemmy.blahaj.zone
- !dankmemes@lemmy.world
- !ehbuddyhoser@sh.itjust.works
- !ExplainTheJoke@spaffel.social
- !fediashitpost@fedia.io
- !fedimemes@feddit.uk
- !femcelmemes@lemmy.blahaj.zone
- !funny@sh.itjust.works
- !funny@lemmy.world
- !furry_irl@pawb.social
- !gifconversation@lemm.ee
- !greentext@sh.itjust.works
- !gunmemes@lemmy.world *
- !high_quality_gifs@lemmy.sdf.org
- !hq_memes@lemmy.world
- !imgoingtohellforthis@lemm.ee
- !internetfuneral@lemmy.world
- !humor@beehaw.org *
- !justpost@lemmy.world
- !lemmybewholesome@lemmy.world
- !lemmyshitpost@lemmy.world
- !linkedinlunatics@sh.itjust.works *
- !lotrmemes@lemmy.dbzer0.com
- !loweffortmemes@crazypeople.online
- !mathmemes@lemmy.blahaj.zone
- !me_irl@lemmy.world
- !memes@jlai.lu
- !memes@lemmy.world
- !memes@slrpnk.net
- !memes@sopuli.xyz
- !memes@lemmy.ml
- !metalmemes@lemmy.world
- !microblogmemes@lemmy.world
- !MoldyMemes@spaffel.social
- !nocontextpics@lemmy.world
- !nominativedeterminism@feddit.uk *
- !nonsense@moist.catsweat.com *
- !okmatewanker@feddit.uk
- !pokemonmemes@lemmy.world *
- !programmer_humor@programming.dev
- !reactionmemes@lemmy.dbzer0.com *
- !reallyshittycopper@lemmy.world *
- !relationshipmemes@lemmyis.fun
- !roughromanmemes@lemmy.world
- !rpgmemes@ttrpg.network
- !science_memes@mander.xyz
- !shirtsthatgohard@lemmy.world
- !shitposting@lemmy.ml
- !shittylifeprotips@lemmy.world
- !shittytattoos@lemmy.ca
- !fbstolencontent@lemmy.ca *
- !surrealmemes@sh.itjust.works *
- !tech_memes@lemmy.world *
- !badrealestate@feddit.uk *
- !garfieldism@lemmy.blahaj.zone *
- !ancientinternet@lemmy.world
- !the_pack@lemmy.world
- !TwoGoobers@lemm.ee
- !wholesomegreentext@sh.itjust.works *
- !wholesomememes@lemmy.world *
- !wizards@lemmy.world
- !witchymemes@lemmy.world
- !wlw_memes@lemmy.world
- !yurimemes@lemmy.blahaj.zone
- !youtubeclassics@sh.itjust.works
Thanks for the great list! I found several neat communities I wouldn’t have otherwise.
!communitypromo@lemmy.ca can help too
196 has political content as an example of things to post
O yeah good point… maybe I should change the disclaimer…
Thanks for this list!
Awesome list.
deleted by creator
Heavy blocking of communities makes this place more tolerable, but I share your pain.
I wanted to try starting over here. But, the vastly smaller user base means specific communities are harder to find, and those that do exist seem to be straggling along.
I think the most recent post in the science fiction one I found was eight days ago.
I get it, remove oneself from corporates that defend Nazis. But man is it hard to find something to keep out the bad thoughts when the alternatives are either throwing tumbleweeds or just amplifying the bad thoughts.
Processing reality is making a lot of people depressed
It’s healthier than the alternatives
I have noticed the same thing, I think it’s really just the news. Most of the posts I see are news articles or about the news. Recently I started using Mastodon and found it to be much more positive. Yes, we are living in tough times. But we need to see evidence of things worth saving in humanity, like community and compassion to keep us going.
You can block the politics subs, although personally I’d recommend just subscribing to subs that interest you and browsing your subscribed feed. See https://lemmy.world/post/16327122 list for casual communities.
I think it’s a phase we’re going through. Many (myself included) did not selected the platform for it’s size or contents, but we came here because we “had” to leave where we where (often reddit). So yeah, many arrive negatively charged but it’s up to all of us to build it into something we want it to be.
Making it a more positive is up to all of us. We can and will do it.
Also, and I don’t mean this as an insult to OP or those who agree, most of the people who just want mindless memes are still on Reddit. A large number of people who came to Lemmy are politically charged and mad at the world. And I guess I’m sorry to the non-Americans, I assume there are more Americans here than other countries, and we’re probably going to talk about our experiences. But more people with more backgrounds joining Lemmy will change all of that.
I do think as far as the depressing topics, the discussion here is much better than Reddit overall. But myself, I’m not here for the memes, I’m here for the politics, and I would guess that’s not uncommon here. I think if the world magically gets better that would probably change.