I've been trying Mastadon for a cuppla months. I'm still at the confused and don't know where I am stage, but I've seen a lot of interesting things and it's nice not to have to scroll past high-fiving fascists all the time. Found a bunch of folks talking about The Expanse in a video this morning! Gosh.

Weed and zoning out sounds lovely. I've been so averse to being alone with my thoughts for *decades* that I've literally got to re-learn how to do it.

And yeah, I've never been into Twitter either. The only thing fedi shares with Twitter, really, is its basic format. Everything else is different. It *feels* entirely different. Has more of the feel of early internet forums.

Novara's main stuff has got very tabloidy in recent years and I'm less of a fan than I used to be. But the Downstream stuff is good. The Bastani ones at least. He just interviews people with interesting ideas and lets them speak. Often ideas that wouldn't necessarily be popular with Novara's audience.

Chapo's much more fun though. Their current stuff is a bit off cos one of their key people (Matt) is off sick and he's kinda necessary to the dynamic. So I'd go back a year or two for their good stuff.

Also their series about the 30 years war and reformation is *very* good. Called Hell on Earth. If you're into more historical stuff.

Oh my word I feel exposed.

What's your thingy? Let's be friends!

Oh well, yes. I'm @Athelstone which is the name I use on some other sites.

@mastodon.social? If so, I've followed you!

Hurrah! A little red number next to the bell. And a message.

Off for a walk now. Just read a bit more about the Neil Gaiman stuff and I need fresh air before I start to think that life will be disappointing forever.

Haha.Yeah. Have a nice walk!

I've proper fallen out with discovery playlists. Same old common denominator shite keeps cropping up and there's definitely some Payola bollocks going on.

I miss just getting music recommendations from friends.

I once had a really good thing going with Discover on Spotify, it was genuinely coming up with all sorts of good stuff for me from obscure electronica classics to new independent music. Getting DO YOU DOUBT ME TRAITOR from Lingua Ignota on the way to work was a memorable example. Crikey! Then my son started wanting to play music and it's just a mess now that I almost never look at. Never mind! I encourage him all the same and enjoy some tiny percentage of his stuff amongst the badness.

I got right into jungle again recently. Anything that autoplays after jungle is always Chase n fucking Status.

Talked to a few people and now I listen to Sully, 5am Kru and Nia Archives. Much better.

It really doesn't exist. Certainly not in the form we'd view as the peak 10-20 years ago.

Move to mobile over desktop (and partly laptop) has definitely changed how we consume online. Or at the very least how the people here would. I'm guessing most of us probably do most of our browsing on a phone now and only get out the laptop or sit at the desktop for something more involved. Whereas in the past me I'd do most on desktop, eventually moving to most on laptop.

My attention span these days is totally fucked. I won't lie, I haven't read your full post. I may return and read it in full at some point, but that's a problem I currently have which I think has been partly caused by the "scrolling" nature of social media these days.
Next post, next post, quick dopamine hit, forward that reel to my gf, skip that. Just letting the algorithm feed me nonsense rather than seeking out interesting things I want read/consume/enjoy.

I need to regulate my screen time far better.

I used to pride myself on not falling for the "short hit" side of social media - I avoided Tik Tok, Twitter and while I watch a lot of YouTube it's mostly long form, useful, content.

But I won't lie - Facebook Shorts has utterly got me. I can easily zone out for ages just scrolling through, frankly, mindless shite.

I've deliberately not bothered with TikTok because of this.

I've got plumbers in my algorithm at the moment. Quite like it.

Oh and the occasional farmer too like this guy

https://www.facebook.com/reel/398326236653297?mibextid=rS40aB7S9Ucbxw6v

Do like that everyday people make "diaries" like this, just wish it was on their own website.

Hello.

Thought of the old place recently and making my amusingly irregular swing by to be pleased that you and other folk still exist in this magical world.

You're right.

The reason I've thought about it was because I've been retreading my career path and the old PC format forum and the folk from it, some of whom made this place, was instrumental in my social development as a geeky 20 something in the late 90s and early 2000s.
It was through there that I got my job at criterion games in derby, where I joined the rock city message boards and made a life in the midlands that still has imprints on me now.
Through both places I got jobs, went to exclusive events and gigs, which I doubt would be possible these days.

Anyway, nowadays I tend to watch creators on youtube who seem more down to earth who seem to be of my generation or my style, like adventureme, rick beato, jonny harris, and grassroots political commentary. I quit x and rarely touch anything away from Facebook/insta which is for small circles of old friends.

I have distractions in my real life that take a lot of focus from any of the old fun stuff (also fun) but it is nice to think about the old west of the www.

Nice to hear from you!