Would you consume your own content?

..and do you think that you posting it has a positive, neutral or negative effect on the world?

By content I mean what ever you're posting online. The pictures you post on Instagram/Pixelfed or messages you're writing on Lemmy, YouTube comment section, Facebook and so on.

If you look back at what you have posted in the past year for example, do you consider it to be the kind of content that you would gladly consume if it was coming from someone else? If not, then why are you posting it in the first place?

MajorHavoc ,

My comments are pure Internet gold. I'm actually only here to read my own comments. It helps me remember how brilliant and humble I am.

My posts help people discover MineTest. It's pretty great, and it's free.

tal ,
@tal@lemmy.today avatar

and open-source.

MajorHavoc ,

True. I don't post the license prominently, but my comments are Creative Commons, Attribution, Share Alike

Okay, I'm actually kidding about misunderstanding which bit of my comment your reply was to.

Yes, it's great that MineTest is open source! And the mod community is impressive.

PlexSheep ,

What is minetest?

MajorHavoc ,

MineTest is an open source game engine that allows running various open source Minecraft clones.

vaionko ,

You actually did reminde me to try minetest again right now! I tried it last like a decade ago and been meaning to try again

Thorny_Insight OP ,

What made me think about this is my girlfriend, who is quite vocal about the harms social media can have on the mental health of young girls, especially when influencers post heavily edited photos of themselves and their lives, which for the most part are fake.

However, she's active on social media as well, and being quite an attractive woman, she seems oblivious to what I consider a factual statement: her own content is also causing the same kind of concerns for other women who are not as genetically blessed as she is. What she's posting is not fake, but it is heavily curated nonetheless. She obviously knows this herself, but do her followers?

I don't personally follow her social media, but I'd be willing to bet she hasn't posted about being sick for a week and not taking a shower for four days. I don't mean that as a criticism per se, but I think it highlights how little we think about the effect our own content has on others while still being quick to judge others for what they post.

Vanth ,
@Vanth@reddthat.com avatar

"She's hot, but really ought to keep it on the DL for me to enjoy and no one else to see because think of the children".

What a weird little humble brag while also putting down your girlfriend and blaming her for broader society's behavior. If she's not lying, advocating for unhealthy habits or trends, encouraging parasocial relationships, or spreading misinformation, she's not the problem.

Thorny_Insight OP ,

What's up with the quotation marks when you just came up with that "quote" yourself? I don't feel the need to defend views I don't hold.

gedaliyah ,
@gedaliyah@lemmy.world avatar

But if you don't thoughtfully respond to every strawman, then the internet WINS!

Now what were we talking about? Something about how content impacts us or what?

Carrolade ,

If you look at the Trump candidacy and things like qanon, it'd be hard to argue that the internet isn't making inroads. My generation let this go on for long enough, it's not about the lulz anymore. Lots of people are getting hurt, and it can still get worse.

otp ,

I hope that's not the only lens you see the world through. I don't think anybody else saw that comment the way you did.

Vanth ,
@Vanth@reddthat.com avatar

Multiple upvotes on my comment indicates I'm not the only one tired of Boomer "shit on my partner" humor.

WindyRebel ,

Arguably, if you’re producing your own content then you’re consuming it too. It takes a lot of watch and/or listen multiple times to produce a final product which means you’re more than consuming it.

Hadriscus ,

I lose count of how many times I replay a given animation shot before I consider it final. Probably 300 or 400

tal ,
@tal@lemmy.today avatar

Sure. Heck, occasionally I do actually do that, like if I post a piece of information that I've looked up and then refer back to it later.

Carrolade ,

I occasionally go through my old comments to see how things got received, see if I could improve my wording, things like that. General communications skill polishing. It's not consuming as much as critically reviewing, but whatever.

Since I'm adding engagement on lemmy, and I do put some effort in to be amusing or informative or whatever (usually anyway), yes I do feel like I am helping. If I was on reddit or something, not so much.

otp ,

I'm glad I'm not the only one who has ever done that! Haha

Nemo ,

Yes, and I often reread my own comments and feel a deep sense of satisfaction.

MajorHavoc ,

You're not alone in that.

I also reread your comments sometimes with a deep sense is satisfaction.

(I'm kidding. Although I did check your comment history to make sure you weren't a monster before even making that joke.)

Today ,

My 'content ' is almost entirely dumb comments that are often barely related to the post. Definitely not adding to the world, but hopefully no one takes it seriously enough for it to have any negative impact other than just wasted space.

datavoid ,

hopefully no one takes it seriously enough for it to have any negative impact

There is always one, and their goal always seems to be to frustrate you into engaging with them

Hedup ,

I don't post almost anything online. I mostly just comment. But even the comments I make I sometimes consume as content - I really like comming back and rereading them to enjoy how good and smart I've been.

ripcord ,
@ripcord@lemmy.world avatar

I don't consciously "produce" any "content", and calling it "consuming" seems gross and shallow.

Thorny_Insight OP ,

It's the bland, neutral and "scientific" way of describing an activity. We're all effectively content creators here where as lurkers only consume.

gedaliyah ,
@gedaliyah@lemmy.world avatar

Lemmy has actually made me more thoughtful about this. Like a lot of people here, I was previously on reddit, where most interactions were pretty toxic. Now I do try to think about how my contributions make the platform better or more useful for others.

I was a "top 1% poster" on reddit (according to them), but it was mostly garbage and reposts and "zingers" so even though it got a lot of updoots, it was not really helpful to people. There were some communities that were exceptions, where I put a lot of effort, research, etc., but they were more niche.

all-knight-party ,
@all-knight-party@kbin.run avatar

If it's any consolation, reddit sort of trains you to post things like that because that's what the masses like and recognize the most.

Shady_Shiroe ,
@Shady_Shiroe@lemmy.world avatar

I already do that for nostalgia and memories, I like going through my camera roll every so often despite the fact I don't take many pictures.

AgentGrimstone ,

Yes. If I can enjoy other people's corny jokes and snarky comments, I would probably like my own too.

v4ld1z ,
@v4ld1z@lemmy.zip avatar

I am vegan (pull out the pitchforks) and am pretty vocal about it on here and used to be on the other website. I wouldn't say I'm an activist per se, but every comment and post I make about the subject whenever it's brought up makes me feel like I'm making a difference. If the comment resonates with someone reading and leads to fewer animals and animal-derived products being consumed, I'm happy. So yea, for sure.

Same goes for the two communities I created and mod (c/sekiro and c/bloodborne if anyone's curious). A bot has recently helped me fill the communities with content since engagement isn't super high from community members themselves. Before the bot, I tried to make daily posts in both communities, thinking it's content that I enjoy so others would likely too. Since they're still quite niche and don't have a massive following, I think it's definitely a good start for people interested in the games

Cool post btw. I think it's easy to lose oneself in the daily monotomy that is life and work and stuff, so reminding oneself that participating in communities such as Lemmy is making a difference in one shape or form

bear ,

Yes. Positive. It won't be a big difference but everything matters in its own small way. Posts that piss off dozens of people can still have one person who loves your perspective. That one person can be you. Ignore the haters.

Thorny_Insight OP ,

If it pisses off dozens of people but there's one person loving it, wouldn't it still be accurate to say that the effect is net-negative?

bear ,

No because we ignore the haters.

Thorny_Insight OP ,

Do you apply that logic to the people posting content that pisses you off as well?

bear ,

Yes, ignore the ragebait.

willya ,
@willya@lemmyf.uk avatar

Yeah, block and move on.

0x30507DE ,
@0x30507DE@lemmy.today avatar

Do repos on GitHub and assorted messages on text-based communication platforms count as content? Because if that's the case, then all the time, because I generally write stuff down in case I proceed to forget exactly what that function did or why I calculated this bypass coefficient like this or why for the love of fuck does vivado keep reverting to incremental synthesis and how did I fix it last time aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

As for if my random technical nonsense has any bearing on the world, not really, outside of maaaybe the demoscene if the SID stuff works out, and the few people who like reading my ramblings for some reason.

Hadriscus ,

what's incremental synthesis ?

0x30507DE ,
@0x30507DE@lemmy.today avatar

Aa far as I'm aware, incremental synthesis is vivado trying to build a new FPGA bitstream by modifying a snapshot of the previous build, to ostensibly save time. Because the SID FPGA implementation is a relatively small part of the MEGA65 core, it really likes to forget to add any changes I make, especially related to timing optimization (it took me so long to figure out it had re-enabled itself, after disabling it my total negative slack was cut in half due to it finally registering all the pipelining and other optimization). I've also had vivado outright lock up with some cases.

Hadriscus ,

Thanks, that clears it up

Hadriscus ,

Just joking, I love that you explained further but to be honest I still have no idea what is going on, haha. The bit about "modifying a snapshot of the previous build" sounds like the idea behind binary diffing?

Ok, I looked up Vivado and now I have a better idea. A field very alien to me but fascinating to hear about

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