I wrote an article promoting the Fediverse & RSS - "How to Reclaim Your Feed and Stop the Doomscrolling"
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I’m a big proponent of getting people off closed platforms and algorithms that manipulate our feeds. I took a big swing writing this one and hope people enjoy it. Feedback is welcome!
Here’s a quick excerpt:
Algorithms trap you in doomscrolling but RSS and the Fediverse can give you back control of your attention.
The doomscrolling we’ve fallen into is because we are on one of only a couple of central platforms. Each one has not just commerce via ads sold to be inserted into your feed, but a commerce based on your attention. And since anger, rage, and information that upsets us is shown to keep us engaged for longer, that’s the focus of the attention-grabbing content we’re shown. Long gone are the feeds showing only what we’ve chosen to follow. They’ve been replaced by algorithms that are mostly “suggested” posts that generate those negative emotions, with plenty of ads mixed in, and a tiny dash of an account or topic you actually want to see. The days of a feed we 100% control is dead.
Or is it?
-
I’m a big proponent of getting people off closed platforms and algorithms that manipulate our feeds. I took a big swing writing this one and hope people enjoy it. Feedback is welcome!
Here’s a quick excerpt:
Algorithms trap you in doomscrolling but RSS and the Fediverse can give you back control of your attention.
The doomscrolling we’ve fallen into is because we are on one of only a couple of central platforms. Each one has not just commerce via ads sold to be inserted into your feed, but a commerce based on your attention. And since anger, rage, and information that upsets us is shown to keep us engaged for longer, that’s the focus of the attention-grabbing content we’re shown. Long gone are the feeds showing only what we’ve chosen to follow. They’ve been replaced by algorithms that are mostly “suggested” posts that generate those negative emotions, with plenty of ads mixed in, and a tiny dash of an account or topic you actually want to see. The days of a feed we 100% control is dead.
Or is it?
I concur with the other two respondents. I came upon this post after searching up “stop doom scrolling” because I have been doing far too much of that on Lemmy. I started scanning your article and have bookmarked it for a more focused read later but at first blush, I don’t think the Fediverse or RSS is a solution. Not in and of themselves.
Same search, different post, lead me to a book: The Shallows - What the Internet is doing to our brains, by Nicholas Carr. Added to my reading list but first impression from the synopsis is that the medium shapes how we think and behave. Our brains are being shaped to jump from snippet to snippet. Concentrated linear thinking is eroded.
My gathering impression is that avoiding doom scrolling is about being intentional in our interactions with content and I suspect that is your point in the linked article. RSS may be a way to support “intentionality” because once you have scanned your curated list of content, you are done. That only works if you have built the habit of not then skipping to the next “channel” to scan some more.
Thanks for creating the article and posting it. You have helped me think on this more deeply.
