Im cautiously optimistic about Lemmy. Short / mid term I’ll be here as it provides probably 90+% of what I was getting out of Reddit. I’m not sure long term how it will work out but so far I have no reason to leave.
I’ve also noticed I just don’t interact with any of it like I used to with Reddit. I used to spend a lot of time just doom scrolling on Reddit. Now I get the highlights of the news, check the sports sun for updates, and then I’m back to the real world. I like that.
I like that the Fediverse in general feels much smaller (because it is) than normie websites. You get the feel of old school forums here but not this endless feed of garbage that lends itself to addiction and doom scrolling.
You’re a lot more likely to get a conversation here, or at least have someone read what you write.
It’s like Reddit was before everything was so huge. Whatever you say there gets buried before you even have a chance to have any kind of discussion.
And I’ll tell you something else amazing that has happened for me.
It’s like dropping Reddit cold turkey has changed something in my brain. I’m dropping a ton of bad habits like it’s nothing. I was a chain smoker this time last month. Recently I smoked two and a half packs in one day and I was really upset with myself. I said, “no more.” and I’m down to 4-8 cigarettes a day. It’s like it made me realize that I have control over myself.
I’m gonna try to go this whole day here at work without a cigarette. At this rate I will have quit completely in no time.
Honestly I think once third-party apps get sorted with subscription or personal API keys, people will return and reddit will keep growing.
I do like the federated model though, and I'll probably keep using Lemmy too. Feels much more like the "old" reddit from 10+ years ago. Probably because only the old school users have moved to Lemmy.