My suggestion if you want the Fediverse to work, follow and favorite and boost the absolute hell out of people. It’s not about dopamine or clout chasing, it’s about letting people know they’re not just typing into a void.
@jsit also, follow basically everyone who looks even vaguely interesting, you can always unfollow them, and the more follows you have, the more boosted posts on your timeline to find new people to follow, then the cycle continues