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In retrospect, I'm actually kinda glad I never really made friends here

It seems to me that the users of SW don't actually do much with their lives. No matter what hour of the day or time of the week I log on, it's basically the same users over and over, and they're usually posting the same type of content over and over. It's almost like this is all they have.

Not trying to condemn or act like I'm better, just a feeling I can't shake. Personally, I find a lot of posts either fall into the camp of being reactionary or being uninspired. Maybe I ask too much of people, but maybe the posts really are that way. I get the sense, and I'm fairly sure many people would confess, that users mostly congregate here in order to relieve their boredom.

I guess the internet as a whole is really good for that. It's no secret that social media networks are designed to keep people addicted. I know YouTube algorithms are actively trying to destroy any attempt at a productive life for me. But in many cases, that relationship is just between a person and the bots responsible for pushing content on them.

When everything is out in the open here and people can respond to whatever pops into their feed, it feels a lot like walking through an old dimly lit casino. You're just watching people all around you glued to their slot machines, pumping quarters into a soulless machine with the dreams of doing something better with their lives one day.

Maybe I'm wrong, but I don't think many people here have hobbies. Other than going to and from work, and maybe cooking something for themselves, I don't see many people post about things they've created, places they've been, goals they've accomplished, or people they've met. It's possible that it happens and I'm just not on here often enough to notice, but I'm inclined to believe that it doesn't really happen that often.

That isn't to say that the measure of a person is how much they indulge their dreams and impulses. Certainly people can be multifaceted without that. But it is kind of sad to me that people waste all that time in their lives and still post nothing all that meaningful here. So much of the content I scroll through is either obtuse, divisive political virtue signals or soft attempts at fishing for an inkling of attention.

I know I can be too serious for my own good a lot of times, so maybe shooting the sh.it and trolling around is a worthwhile use of time for some people. It's not my place to judge. I just can't help but notice how little actually gets communicated here despite the relative freedom to do so. If people are getting entertainment value out of it, then I'm not going to try to stop them. Live and let live.

Still, it's a little disheartening seeing so much wasted potential.
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twiigss · M
This site here, is my replacement for Yahoo Answers. So that's the reason I'm on here a bit. However, I do work a 5am to 5pm job mon-fri with 7 hours on saturday. I do have a life outside of the online world.

On a work break or at lunch, I can simply pull the website up on my phone and reply to posts, or make my own posts.

I will agree though, there are a lot of divisive posts here, mainly political. I try my best to stay out of it if I can, doesn't always happen though, and I find myself getting slightly involved, and then trying to detach from it.

Generally though, I try to use the site as a Q&A site like Yahoo Answers. The nice thing on SW is that it's basically an open forum, with the Q&A format, but you can pretty much chat with others, something that was taken away on Yahoo Answers.

My only con really is I wish there were more people here who knew more about many different things. Yahoo Answers seemed like there was a good bit of people, but then you had nonsense going on when you asked a question, so that part didn't help much.
TinyViolins · 31-35, M
@twiigss When Q&A is used as intended, it can be really rewarding. A lot of questions that you haven't come across or aren't used to can force you to look inside yourself and explore how you feel or what you think about certain matters. It's a little bit of a learning experience, which is often why I still use this site after all these years.

I'm not knocking down anybody that uses this site in earnest. Curiosity is an amazing thing, whether you're diving within yourself or getting a read on what's around you. I just find that the Q&A, which is no longer really a Q&A but a general feed, tends to get bogged down by people looking for validation