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People dont wanna be cringe, I am told.

I suspect a lot of folks that have pulled back from directly engaging with strangers on social media have done so because of the increasingly hostile engagement patterns encouraged by other social media sites. Not to say that there aren't still assholes here, just that the format doesn't foster it.

feels like people are more in their feelings and society has become even more self-centred so people reply on the basis of what they want to say not what they want you personally to hear because who cares about you there is no you really. although I've also been getting this off men irl for 30 years

In my reading of history, it tunlrns out a lot of people had some degree of aphantasia and other learning disabilities all along, books aren't good with their brains, and magazines as documentary were an abilfying infotech

One very annoying aspect of Bluesky is users who attribute to the platform the traits of some annoying users the platform simply tolerates as a matter of neutral policy.

I mean --- Low bar.

I think (hope?) this is a lot of what people are gravitating towards in moving away from traditional social media, aside from the part that's being sucked up by chatbots

ConwayLife is a very good community that's also had productive research done on it "What's that?" Exactly

It is frightening, but, agreed

We need a traffic light system, red for youngsters and " How very dare you" celebs, amber for mutuals only and green for people like me who love a bit of interaction and a natter!

I came to twitter as the most viable replacement for google reader (mainly because blogs were already dying) so reading first is my mental model. When I reply, it's mostly to make sure there is a paper trail of me being a fellow traveler in case there is some miscommunication in the future.

i think a lot about how much engagement i want on social media. I do tend not to read replies from accounts that don’t follow me. It has to do with the fact that i attract a fair amount of hostility because of certain stances i take. i tend to operate as if i were still on twitter.

Yay but also yikes

I generally agree.... With the exception of any replies to major news organizations and the vast fascination with Aaron Rupar.

I agree, and enjoy the thoughtful engagement, uniquely informed perspectives and spontaneous humor as it presents, amidst the rest. Probably because I find the world an ever interesting place.

and i might be misremembering but i don't recall it being that bad (at least for men) on old-twitter.

Yes, and yes.

oh no

The Well is much smaller than its glory days, but our Books conference comes pretty close.

Yeah, curated reddits like r/askhistorians are still superior because they're the only place for long-form responses from professionals.

Nah There's always a few too many redditors in there, even in the niche ones Them folks got like twelve jokes between em

I'm not sure how you'd design a system to encourage better behavior. I think it is better here because feed algorithms aren't trying to maximize emotional engagement the same way other networks do.

bsky is what social media was in the 2000s, before everyone's brain turned to oatmeal. We're the last survivors of the great endumbening.

It comes across as weirdly narcissistic to do that, because, obviously, a post to social media or in a forum is not to an individual. This demonstrates it actually kind of is a broadcast. But not like classic broadcast media.

I do find myself talking less with strangers here because, like you say, so many responses are just illiterate — weirdly phrased reiterations of what I just said or unnecessarily hostile in tone. It doesn’t feel “social,” it just feels like bots. Like we automated the “Debate Me” bros 😬

Yup. It was one of *those* Bluesky days yesterday. bsky.app/profile/mole...

... Yeah I can get behind that.

Guilty. Sorry.

Given how many of such posts are allegedly made by 50+yos, I don't think that's likely an adequate explanation. ("Grandpa" in profile, etc.) We've been teaching "speed reading" as aspirational for a long time, though, so maybe a similar issue.

I have had work conversations in this fashion. if I could remember the complete buzzwords list I would be unstoppable

I’d noticed that exact same seems-to-scan-for-key-words thing way back in the 1990s, on Usenet. No idea whether it seems more prevalent now because a greater proportion of people are doing it, or because there are just many more people online, or if it’s something in the design of the networks.

I think Bluesky is where a lot of these people end up

So I guess I'm kind of the opposite of what you're seeing, becoming more active after a couple of decades online. I definitely attribute that to the environment here being welcoming and smart. I like being smart and the feedback loop here is real.

Another thing is people with .05% the followers as you might not feel there's much point in posting, I feel like no one cares what I type here, and also they might be justified in not caring about most of my posts. I try to not clog up people's brains if I'm not saying anything novel.

I don't know if it's me or if it's just a difference in how people communicate, but I have a harder time distinguishing between someone someone being genuine, someone being facetious, or someone being hostile.

It's probably a good thing. Nobody should be as online as I am.

It's because you're a true Poaster Faine.

I feel like Bluesky is the cocktail party chatter i'm missing irl.

I hold myself to the same standards and only occasionally feel like I have something to contribute - that’s why I’m mostly a lurker.

I suppose that was inevitable with large-broadcast sites. Even a large forum was not large enough to make it monetizable.

Same! Maybe it’s poor impulse control but I can’t not.