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Finding “The Internet” Toxic and Depressing? Consider Leaving Your Walled Garden
- 082349872349872 4y agocf E. M. Forster, “The Other Side of the Hedge” (1911)
- jfengel 4y agoMy Internet isn't toxic and depressing because I have a walled garden. I have curated my friends list and other feeds. Anybody posting more than a small fraction of hostility (even if it's stuff I agree with) gets muted. They post stuff I'm likely to be interested in. Some of it is groups specifically designed to list light but interesting crap. I could go out and search for such things myself, but they provide sufficient entertainment. A lot of people want their social media to be toxic and depressing. I assume they're getting what they want. The problem is that they go out and spread that toxicity to others. I can't help what they do out in The World, but I can ensure that they don't spread it to me online. HN is the only site where I regularly meet toxic people, and I wish it had a feature to hide them from my feed. I go only because it also regularly points me to sites I find interesting. If the former outweighs the latter, I'm gone.