On top of that, most of us only get meaningful substantial social interaction at work, if that.

Just "quitting all social media" is tougher than it sounds because deep down humans want to interact with each other, but we often can't! And aside from algorithms, lots of stuff sucks right now, so that's what people are talking about. And that's before we bring algorithms into the equation.

The Internet used to be this wonderful place to reach out and meet other human beings from anywhere, and make friends, and share, and be connected to those other people without being stuck in 100°F heat and traffic or airlines. It was a digital "third place" for humanity to hang out.

And now the main 'net is an unholy, ravenous corporate homunculus that wears the skin of that third place.

We're still mostly physically isolated from the rest of our species unless it's an unpleasant obligation, but the "people" are harder to find amongst all the shapeshifting shills, ads, propagandists, and most of all, bots.

Lemmy has none of those algorithms, and a lot of the articles and posts bum me the heck out, badly, but I still feel the urge to visit because outside of work and my overworked family and busy friends on wacky schedules, I too, am isolated.