I’m old enough to have witnessed the early beginnings of the Internet in the 90s - and what’s happening now with the fediverse feels like coming back to its roots.

We may well find that the implosion of Twitter and Reddit - within 6 months of each other - is the beginning of the end for “big tech”. It’s unlikely that it will go away entirely but I do feel a seismic shift happening. I seriously hope that it’s not a false dawn.

[–] SirEDCaLot@lemmy.fmhy.ml 5 points 1 year ago (4 children)

Agreed. Big tech platforms make it easy for everyone to participate. But while we gained simplicity, we lost control and independence and creativity. Every website isn't supposed to look the same. And our expression and activity isn't supposed to just be grist for the data mill.

I remember fondly the days of early broadband, when tons of people would run a server on an old laptop for an IRC bot or a shoutcast stream or whatever. We need that back. I hear about people doing that with Lemmy instances and Matrix homeservers and the like and it makes my heart sing.

Twitter and reddit won't implode. But hopefully they keep all the users who just want to mindlessly scroll through low effort content and the smarter ones join the fediverse.

[–] astreus@lemmy.world 8 points 1 year ago (3 children)

And desire to participate! Commenting on most websites is shouting into the wind. I feel like general engagement has the potential to be better in a decentralised environment.

[–] SirEDCaLot@lemmy.fmhy.ml 4 points 1 year ago

Agreed. Not just shout into the wind bit really engage and LISTEN as well as talking. Reddit used to have that. It's largely gone away in the last 5ish years :(

[–] washashore@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago

That’s what I always loved about Reddit above all other social media. It has a system in place (both through up/downvoting as well as moderating) to foster quality discussions. No other social media compares in that way. The rest are, like you said, people screaming into the wind. It’s reactionary and it’s so vapid for the most part.

load more comments (19 replies)