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Is it possible to design a social media app or service that rather than focuses on farming engagement, it tries to promote quality content? (lemmy.world)

submitted 3 days ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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[–] sugar_in_your_tea 1 points 3 days ago (4 children)

But then you end up in echo chambers. That may be fine for certain things like hobbies and humor, but it's not great for news and politics.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 days ago (3 children)

I really think this is overblown. Before the internet everyone was not in their own echo chamber. its up to the individual to be judicious in usage but only the individual can say what that is. Remember if people subscribe to communities and only look at their subscribed its the same as looking at all and blocking all the communities one would not subscribe to.

[–] sugar_in_your_tea 1 points 3 days ago (2 children)

Well yeah, before the internet, it was harder to find like-minded people, so you engaged with whoever was close to you, like family and neighbors.

The internet made it a lot easier to find like-minded people and ignore everyone else. I think that's the main reason we're so polarized today. Just look at Lemmy, it's basically all leftists, and even the conservative areas are just leftists making fun of conservatives.

If you put moderation on the client, there's a chance that people from various backgrounds will use it and just moderate out the stuff they don't agree with, and people who want a mix can have it too. At least that's the hope.

[–] taladar 1 points 2 days ago (1 children)

I think one reason that is often overlooked in that polarization is that there are a lot fewer places in RL too where you have to interact with others in a more than superficial way or even can do so if you actively choose to do so.

A big reason for that is cars which isolate people as they travel from place to place and another is the reshaping of our cities into large homogeneous parts, each just for a group of people with similar income and culture.

[–] sugar_in_your_tea 1 points 2 days ago

Perhaps, but at least my experience with mass transit and walking is that people largely don't interact directly and are doing their own thing.

I think the biggest thing to blame is smartphones. Before phones became commonplace, a few people would wear headphones or whatever, but most didn't. I had lots of conversations on buses and trains and at stops and stations. But now everyone is on their phones instead.