At least on the communities i follow. Every so often I come across a thread where i recognize most of the users there even in the big communities with over 30k members and I haven’t even been on lemmy that long.
The majority of individuals on platforms like Lemmy—and social media more broadly—engage almost exclusively as passive consumers. Their involvement often begins and ends with the simple act of upvoting or downvoting content. This limited interaction speaks volumes about the nature of digital engagement, where consuming information or entertainment takes precedence over meaningful interaction or contribution. The absence of deeper engagement is not a failing of the platform itself but a reflection of broader societal tendencies.
People, in general, tend toward passivity, a trait that extends beyond online spaces and into areas like civic participation. In the United States, for example, voter turnout remains notoriously low. People express their dissatisfaction with the status quo, they crave change, and they criticize institutions, yet they shy away from taking the minimal steps required to enact that change, often hiding behind a hand-waving comment involving the words “systemic,” “structure,” and/or “institutions,” a transparent way of excusing their unwillingness to actually act. As though they themselves are not parts of those systems, structures, and institutions. The same individuals who will upvote or downvote content online without a second thought are often the ones who abstain from voting in elections, an “upvote/downvote” that directly impact their lives.
What is even more concerning is that this passivity is not merely a result of laziness or apathy, but something ingrained and encouraged by modern society. Our institutions—whether educational, political, or corporate—tend to value compliance over initiative. Decision-making, once seen as a marker of personal agency and responsibility, is increasingly viewed as a burden. People have been conditioned to prefer being told what to do rather than take responsibility for their choices.
If a decision goes wrong, there’s an inherent comfort in being able to place blame on someone else. This social conditioning makes being passive, fading into the wallpaper, not only acceptable but desirable for many. And yet, these same people will often feel deeply dissatisfied with their lives. But, rather than do something about it, they continue to be helpless, wishing someone would decide for them to improve their lives and then forcing them to do it.
While it’s easy to express frustration with the passive nature of online participants, it is also, sadly, understandable. They are products of a society that rewards inaction more than action, where engagement is often reduced to the simplest and least effortful gestures. These platforms reflect the broader societal trend toward disengagement from real, consequential decision-making, reinforcing and reflecting a vicious cycle of passive impotence while they wait for someone or something to fix things for them.
No but I don’t think that’s a bad thing.
Most people are probably pretty passive, so yeah, I think there’s a subset of posters who are highly visible. But even over at Hacker News, where there’s a much larger audience commenting, I recognize specific names because something they said in the past got my attention and I start piecing together their personality a bit at a time.
Honestly, that’s one of the cool parts of old internet (forums, chatrooms, etc.) is getting to know people, you get to know the community 😊
Be the shitpost you want to see in the world.
Am I lemmy famous yet?
Lemmy.world is defederated from the major Marxist instances, so you might want to join a different instance for a fresh look. Lemmy in general is small enough to be dominated easily, what helps this is finding a good instance and treating said instance like a community with different tags, rather than treating communities like subreddits.
I have an account on sh.itjust.works that i rarely use. Then again, do i want to see posts from Marxists, especially the ones defederated from .world?
The ownership class will tremble before a communist revolution! We have nothing to lose but our chains! <Bolshevik chorus swells>
Sh.itjust.works is also defederated. If you’re a liberal, then you probably don’t care for Marxism and Lemmy.world is going to be fine, the mods are anti-Marxism as well. You’ll just run into the same issue of having a few posters dominate is all.
I thought hexbear was marxist. Oh well i guess I’ll stick to seeing the same users
Hexbear is Marxist, yes, and is defederated with sh.itjust.works and lemmy.world.
Does defederation mean I only can’t make any posts or comments to that instance. Because i can still view and seemingly join hexbear communities on my sh.itjust.works alt.
Interesting, when are the latest posts in those communitues?
[email protected] has a post as early as 2 days ago
Kinda yeah. BUT my comment to lurk ratio is still less than I did on Reddit. So even my few contributions are still more than I ever really did on Reddit.
more not less, isn’t it?
Hello cousin! Wanna go bowling?
Only if you tell me what your name means
It’s based on the Swedish chef from the Muppets
Basically I have a mustache, love to eat and cook on my spare time, but my food rarely makes sense (everyone thinks it tastes good tho)
I was hoping that was the reference 😂
It’s a village vibe, grab onto the grapevine
I don’t see that as a problem personally
A boon, really.
With such a user pool you’d think I’d make someone laugh
Lol
thanks. don’t I know you ?
It’s a smaller neighborhood here dude.
Yep! We smol.
IllegallySmol
But so fierce.
Hey, it’s just the cold water.
“I was in the pool!”
“I’m a grower not a shower”…
“It’s not the size of the boat, it’s the motion of the ocean”…
I see that now
cozy. lets just think of It as cozy, why don’t we… ahhh, much better!
Hey watch your hand!
That’s very much possible.
That’s why I try to be as nice as I can on here.
There are very few times when I initially joined Lemmy where, I admit, I was a bit shitty towards some users (old Reddit habits). This can get you banned, or blocked, or you can build a reputation pretty quickly. And since we’re not a lot, that can limit your interactions quite a bit. So I changed my attitude pretty quick. And frankly it’s been much more enjoyable this way since.
Reddit did things to us all. You couldn’t like be nice to someone bc you would get your ass handed to you. EVERY comment had to be so defensive, and primarily what worked was snark. Here… is different, most of the time (and when it’s not, we can block and move on:-).
This is a good way to think about it. I’ve also been trying my hand at being a bit nicer to tankies. Oops… I mean communists.
I’ve also been trying my hand at being a bit nicer to tankies. Oops… I mean communists.
So, I’m finding things reversed, I spent most of my time on reddit going at it with idiot conservatives, just blasting through their talking points and not being polite at all.
Tankies are different because they … it’s not selfishness, it’s not just seeing themselves as the ultimate victim of “evil libruls!”, they really believe the world would be better under their fairy tale. It’s even different from a lot of religious nutjobs I’ve met, who can’t wait for their God to come back and burn everyone who didn’t appreciate how awesome they specifically were, like their dad who worked at the CIA doing Kung-Fu.
Fortunately the tankies have weak arguments, the best of which is “China #1 now!!!”.
Hmm I don’t know which communists you’re debating on here but there are quite a few who i can say have made me reconsider my position enough times. I don’t know whether that’s because of how good they are at debating or how inherently strong their points are but i would be inclined to assume the latter. Maybe you’re just arguing with the blabbermouthed “cAPitALism Bad” folks
Hard agree. Lemmy feels like a town hall. A few important people providing updates on reality and we engage in discussions based on those topics. Honestly. As long as it doesn’t get corporate or super weird I’m okay with that setup. It feels a lot more like a community this way. Whereas Reddit felt like a stadium packed with people. You can shout. And no one knows where it came from.
Interesting to hear
I almost never comment on anything. I imagine most users are like me.
Yes, I do see the same names popping up all the time.
That’s honestly crazy to me. What’s the appeal of lurking?
To learn…
Sometimes what you were going to comment is already there, you updoot and move along.
Not the person you asked but another lurker. Social interaction is hard, even posting this I’m having second thoughts about it, but I still like to feel like a member of the community.
Congratulations to you on interacting! I agree with everything you said.
I’m certainly not one of the lemmy celebrities, but I’ve got nearly 900 comments on lemmy where I doubt I had 100 on Reddit. Not going back to check.
Lemmy is a just nicer place to comment than Reddit: smaller audience, kinder communities, much less intimidating. I don’t consider there to be any pressure to make posts or to comment, but if you do, I doubt you’ll regret it.
Either way, I personally am happy to have you here.