Put your Lemmy app in the spot of wherever your Reddit app is. Make the Reddit app take much more effort to get to. I used to have mine on my home screen so it is one click to get to it after unlocking. Now that’s where my Lemmy app is and RedReader is in a folder off to the side. (I suppose I could go one step further and just remove the Reddit app from the home screen folder.) I end up checking Lemmy first now.

The nice part is that Lemmy is getting big enough that I end up seeing a lot of the same news when I run out of content on Lemmy (start getting into more obscure posts) as when I switch to Reddit. So I find myself thinking “I’ve already seen that” so it makes the Reddit app feel more “stale” and easier to leave.

lmao

Facebook got popular when I was still a freshman in high school, probably earlier, because I was a stubborn late adopter. I think my first Facebook update was trying to convince people to go back to Myspace. 🥲 Even back then I thought it was sterile and boring.

Part of me wonders how many people liked how Facebook catered to the “lowest common denominator” and didn’t allow for much else. I think of how Myspace allowed people to customize their profiles extensively with HTML. A common joke is how either Neopets or Myspace taught millennials the basics of web development through allowing custom HTML. I’m curious how many people on Myspace couldn’t figure HTML out and were envious of those who understood it/could make their profiles “look cool.” And viola! Here is Facebook! A social media platform where no one can make fancy customizations.

I know there’s plenty of other reasons Facebook succeeded, like “the feed”, which made it easy for people to stay up to date on everything going on with their friend group, which of course made it an excellent vector for the enshittification and propaganda generation observed later on.

They were playing Viva La Vida in the grocery store. I’m like… Okay, grocery store, I get you’re trying to “cater to my demographic” since we’re the “new olds” who now regularly shop for produce, but who the fuck thought Viva La Vida was a good “millennial shopper” music choice for picking out produce and scrutinizing cereal boxes? I died inside. Sacrilegious.

Yeah, it’s quite active now, how exciting! I started browsing it just like I did RedReader last night and it didn’t feel like I was missing out on news or conservations. Also I like the Boost UI in some ways more than RedReader’s, so I’m sure that’s helping make the transition easier lol. Reddit really shot itself in the foot destroying all the popular 3rd party apps, reddit is fun was my beloved. RedReader is nice to have still available, but it honestly doesn’t hold a candle to rif’s nice UI/UX. Boost being basically on par with rif for me is making letting go of reddit all the more easier.

This news finally convinced me to make a Lemmy account so I can participate a little more instead of lurk. That, and generally how awful Reddit has been becoming for like, several years at this point, since the IPO.

I’ve swapped out RedReader on my phone’s home screen with Boost; though I think it’ll take some time to break the Reddit addiction.

I am looking forward to seeing Lemmy’s growth!