I'm on my phone less, commenting more, avoiding more ads, and much happier with the content/comments on Lemmy. Reddit chains sometimes felt a little brain-rotty.
I have a lot less to say, and I'm more careful about what I do say.
I believe it's mostly because of the smaller community. It's easier to be an ass at a soccer game with 15,000 strangers than at your great-aunt's birthday. (Even if your third cousin is a neo-nazi.)
I kinda feel like I have more of a persona here? Lemmy is a smaller community than Reddit and I recognize people more than I used to. Read: I ever look at usernames. I've bothered with an avatar, for instance.
Something I still miss is the "brain trust" that was Reddit. You could ask "experimental exo-ornithologists of Reddit" and get at least ten of them. Reddit had a culture of tracking down mysteries, I don't think we have anything like The Most Mysterious Song On The Internet or Celebrity Number Six. I miss stuff like that.
Things like that come with a larger community. However, there are certainly message boards where exo-ornithologists gather where you could likely get a better answer than reddit, and if it's not actually enough of an interest to look for, then does the answer to your question actually matter? Knowledge is great, knowledge is power, but fleeting questions on a subject you won't think about for another decade is just mental masturbation.
Lemmy is a smaller community than Reddit and I recognize people more than I used to. Read: I ever look at usernames.
That's a little terrifying for me as someone who likes using reddit-likes for the anonymity lol. Although on reddit I used to recognise some usernames in smaller subreddits where there were a few active posters.
I miss the niche subs, but I comment more here on threads I normally wouldn't bother with because I know I'd get buried. Interactions here are slower, better thought out and generally more positive. I have actually witnessed someone back down from a position when presented with evidence a couple times and that was a breath of fresh air.
I still use Reddit for research purposes (programming and auto related things). But I also got rid of other means of social media like Twitter and Instagram. I still have a Facebook account, but it’s strictly for communications with family.
I do miss reddit a reasonable amount, especially for niche subs. I do definitely appreciate Lemmy though, and often it feels like I'm actually having conversations instead of screaming into the void like on other platforms.
I stopped using reddit, I'm on my phone a lot less. It makes me less angry and more present, and I really like that. I also comment more, as many of you have said here.
I really miss Ask Historians. It'd send me down some lovely rabbit holes, get me reading books about niche topics I never knew I wanted to learn more about.
I haven't gone back to Reddit since the rapture. The only time I use it is for Google results.
I use Lemmy A LOT less than Reddit. This is a good thing imo.
Since it's a smaller community I find that my posts and comments get a lot more traction.
I miss the smaller niche subs. Yes I know that I should contribute and make it a thing on Lemmy. No I won't because I'm mostly a lurker and would rather just close the app than do any work.
I like how the platform is full of socialist/communist but it can become a bit of an echo chamber.
Are you me? Every point you made mirrors my own Lemmy experience.
The only thing i would add is that i really miss the quality of some of the content, which i would just attribute to the difference between userbase size and by sheer numbers meaning more high quality content to rise up to the top.
I would say on reddit that i would almost never get through the days 'top content' for me before i started losing interest in posts, whereas here i can run out within 15-30 mins and then im among duplicate posts, yesterday's posts or just things that dont interest me much.
But i also put this down to the wider range of subreddits providing more variation and extra content, so perhaps i just have to spend more time finding more lemmy communities to draw from on other instances.
I wouldn't say it was Lemmy that has changed but it's been an integral part to a change in my lifestyle. I don't use Reddit anymore, I switched from Windows to Linux, Degoogled my phone, I take way more consideration into my privacy. All social media account but Lemmy are gone now. Cancelled my Amazon prime and all video services. I have blocked ads from everything in my life to the point that when I see one, it stands out like a sore thumb. I am far more aware of how companies manipulate customers in order to sell product.
I still use Reddit, maybe more in recent times actually. I don't like the platform and the app is a massive pile of wank, but there's more "normal" people there who don't spend every waking moment hating America or going on about Linux. I still use Lemmy nearly every day but it's more morbid curiosity now.