(Fisrt time posting on Lemmy, please be patient)

I don’t know if it was also like this before, but I feel like recently every social media is focused on getting comments, likes, views, people sharing your post, being popular, when the before that (late 199X- mid 201x) was more about being unique and just sharing your own creations and remixes. What makes me feel like this is that whenever I (rarely) open Twitter and go to the homepage most of the posts are something baiting the viewer into commenting or sharing. When your post doesn’t has many interactions or views, you’re deemed as “a failure”. It seems like the (anti)social media is empty with baits and overshared memes. Long gone were the days of being original without having to directly copy someone to have validation and recognition.

  • nocturne
    link
    fedilink
    English
    233 months ago

    Social media has become just has become just a large engagement farm.

    What is happening with that title?

      • nocturne
        link
        fedilink
        English
        73 months ago

        Hey at least you admit it and seem to be doing okay. Just fyi you can edit titles on Lemmy.

        • @Zorque
          link
          English
          23 months ago

          This is how a bot would respond, too.

    • Lvxferre
      link
      fedilink
      English
      73 months ago

      That looks like edition error for me. OP likely wrote something, then erased it halfway, then rewrote it, without noticing that he already wrote that part. I do this all the time.

      • @breakingcups
        link
        English
        113 months ago

        Aight, I feel much better now. Now what about that title.

        • SatansMaggotyCumFart
          link
          English
          33 months ago

          Gotta pump those numbers up. Those are rookie numbers in this racket. I myself, I jerk off at least twice a day.

          • Lemminary
            link
            English
            33 months ago

            Pfft, amateurs. This is my third time today and I gotta rub it against the carpet to arouse some feeling.

            • SatansMaggotyCumFart
              link
              English
              1
              edit-2
              3 months ago

              First it’s carpets then next thing you know you wake up after a two-month multi-country bender in an alley on a dumpster couch covered in love juices.

              • Lemminary
                link
                English
                23 months ago

                Oddly specific. Is there something you’d like to share? 👀

  • @[email protected]
    link
    fedilink
    English
    163 months ago

    No, it’s not just an engagement farm. It’s also an incredibly valuable tool for social engineers to manipulate public opinion. So there’s that.

  • @[email protected]
    link
    fedilink
    English
    143 months ago

    Don’t forget the mass manipulation of public opinion. There are a lot of players out there doing that all the time. From companies making ads that look like silly posts, and paying people or using bots to speak ill of the competition, to media agencies spreading fake news aiming at shifting people’s political views.

  • @[email protected]
    link
    fedilink
    English
    103 months ago

    I think this is quite the popular opinion, even among people who enjoy social media. I feel many people just accept this is the current state of things. But yeah, the evolution happened as the stress to monetize increased, so anything to keep people on the platform.

    If you post something that makes someone stay on platform long enough to see an ad or two, wonderful! The algorithm will bless you with exposure and the emptiness in your soul will be filled with likes.

    Social media platforms want to make ad revenue, they need the audience to stick around and they will employ all kinds of psychological trickery to do so.

    • @Windex007
      link
      English
      23 months ago

      I think this is why Reddit/Lemmy is a great model. Even though “the algorithm” drives for engagement, it’s still community based. Pick the communities you want to see and it’s a radically different experience

      • @[email protected]
        link
        fedilink
        English
        23 months ago

        And the algorithms for Lemmy seem simple enough in my experience. You sort by active to see what people are actually engaging in, sort by hot if you wanna see what’s building momentum (not sure if that’s actually it but that’s what it feels like) and sort by new if you just wanna basically see internet stream of consciousness

  • @[email protected]
    link
    fedilink
    English
    93 months ago

    The high-quality content is still there. It’s just harder to find now. I don’t use Twitter or Facebook (and Lemmy is like junk food for me) but I do read a few interesting blogs regularly and they often link to other interesting blogs.

  • Bear
    link
    fedilink
    English
    13 months ago

    Agreed. Probably not unpopular? It’s a big business now for sure focused on ads, propaganda, and money.