Austin Kocher, PhD 🌎Mastodon is great, but it’s still social media. The platform can use federation to decentralize control and use well-placed features to deprioritize attention-seeking, but it can’t make you kind or force you to engage with people in good faith or remind you to pause before responding. It’s not magic, is all I’m saying, and people (not technology) are still at the center of online social interaction.
Robin Hood@austinkocher absolutely. I’m still as prone as ever to responding too quickly. But hopefully all of the features you mention can be used to help encourage a different climate. But all we live in places where lives are not equally measured or equally treasured.
Reido@__Chimaera @austinkocher The lack of virality robs those who seek it of the endorphin rush of seeing hundreds of people liking a post, which has an inherent calming effect, I think.
LArefugee@austinkocher All true. And yet most of our social constructs demonstrate that people can’t be left just to use their own best judgment without rules or consequences. We are terrible at self regulation as a whole.
dkloke@LArefugee @austinkocher self-regulation is not well taught, and instead discouraged, it interferes with compulsive consumption.
the problems on the surface have deep cultural and educational roots.
technology-driven conveniences further reduce the incentives to self-regulate.
I don't see change on the horizon, it's behind the hill (mountain) of infrastructure catastrophe, a result of overloading and burgeoning incompetence and malice.
@LArefugee @austinkocher I know that sounds depressing, but i feel that self-regulation need realism is worth the price of a clearly unpleasant prospect.
Tech convenience has obscured the hard tasks of sheer survival, which we're never far from.
If I were younger I'd be more eager to engage with that present and future.
PhoenixSerenity@austinkocher I actually find that very refreshing! I'm looking forward to seeing how this all evolves 🙌