I’ve been on Reddit for over a decade. But I’m done with that site and want to do something else. What do normal people look at on their phones? Is it all social media? Streaming?

  • SpaceNoodle
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    I replaced it with Lemmy, so that’s what an abnormal person does.

  • fortniteplaya
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    If by normal people you mean the general public, my guess is just Tiktok and social media.

    • schmidtster
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      But society says normal people aren’t supposed to be engrossed by their phones.

      • FunkyMonk
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        we shouldn’t put toxins in our body either but it’s really popular.

  • sarcasticsunrise
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    9 months ago
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    My amazing wife is normie/10, she watches usually TikTok cooking recipes or makeup videos. I’m trash man husbae, so I’m on Lemmy here with you

  • gregorumEnglish
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    9 months ago
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    How the hell would any of us know?

  • Pons_Aelius
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    Why do you have to replace it?

    Maybe use it as a way to cut down on screen time.

    I have no socials on my phone. I mainly use it to listen to audiobooks/podcasts instead.

    • TheSpermWhaleEnglish
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      9 months ago
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      I have a concerning number of Doctor Who audio dramas on my phone

  • amzd
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    9 months ago
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    Around me I see people watching the videos that just keep coming. Next video before you even had time to form a thought about the last one. I don’t think you should follow their example.

    • Thorny_Insight
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      9 months ago
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      It’s weird! I sometimes look at teenagers browsing their phones on the grocery line and they’re doing a ton of stuff while not actually doing anything. It’s like they simply cant stand there alone with their thoughts for two minutes but need to just start opening random apps, scroll few times, switch to another app, like something, move again

      • Uriel238 [all pronouns]
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        9 months ago
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        If I don’t distract, the demons rise up out of my subconscious and start chewing on my psyche. melancholy, ennui and existential dread follow leading to depression and suicidal ideation. Radical behavior, poor life choices are followed by death and a big mess reported on national news.

        Soharm reduction!

      • cascadingsymmetry
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        This was what people said about channel hopping back in the day.

        This time the content is just made for people to channel hop at a faster rate.

      • SupraMario
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        Tiktok has completely destroyed the attention span of people.

    • ScrubblesEnglish
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      It’s absolutely terrifying how much content is pushed into their eyeballs so quickly. I think about how overwhelmed I was with Reddit, and even here sometimes, and this is a pretty slow feed that I get to control. Control. Having constant video shoved into my eyes- I just don’t think that can be healthy

  • reversebananimalsEnglish
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    9 months ago
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    I ride the public bus every day, and I can tell you its basically all social media, messaging, YouTube and phone/video calls.

    But you don’t have to do the same thing everyone else does. You can play digital card games, chess, read a book, or put your phone in your pocket and listen to podcasts or music. And if you’re not commuting, you can plug your phone in and do actual stuff.

  • cabbage
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    I feel like any time anyone is using their phones in public they’re scrolling Instagram.

    If you want to give an appearance of normalcy while maintaining a living soul, just get a Pixelfed account, follow a bunch of photographers, and scroll endlessly.

    • laverabeEnglish
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      there’s nothing normal about mindlessly scrolling your phone in public

      • Uriel238 [all pronouns]
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        Normal? Very much so.

        Commonplace, absolutely.

        A result of supernormal stimuli? Assuredly.

        Unhealthy? Maybe, but you’d need some good science to indicate so. (More than anecdotal examples) We have a lot of people who will make a moral panic over anything they don’t like, and we’ve grown skeptical.

        • cabbage
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          I mean, the main place i observe this is people commuting on the metro. If they didn’t have phones they’d be reading tabloid newspapers.

          I don’t really see anything wrong with using your phone on the metro. Some will look up art and crafts, some bird photography, others makeup tutorials or video game content. If they can explore their interests rather than just waste their time completely that’s fine by me.

          Of course it’s also a dopamine trap, and Instagram use trends to get a bit out of hand. Still, it seems to me some Lemmy users are a bit too quick to write off “normal” people as broken down zombies.

          • Uriel238 [all pronouns]English
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            My experience on public transit is seeing people texting or chatting with their loved ones. The frequency with which someone smiles over a text exchange (whether it’s from funny exchanges or affirming sentiments) showed me that we’re still social on the bus, only now with those we associate with rather than strangers on the same transit line.

            I’d say it’s a win, though yes, the degree to which mobile games have microtransactions and revenue enhancers, and with which the end-user contract destabilizes with updates is problematic. My susceptability to motion sickness served in allowing me to dodge that bullet on public transit, only to discover it later in waiting rooms.

        • laverabeEnglish
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          Mobile applications are meticulously engineered to capture user attention and foster engagement [3]. Features like real-time notifications, endless scrolling, and gamification elements are quintessential in ensuring sustained user interaction [4]. Renowned platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, and mobile games like Candy Crush have been discerned to instigate addictive behaviors [5, 6]. For instance, the incessant checking of social media apps or the relentless pursuit of advancing game levels transpires despite the apparent adverse repercussions on users’ sleep, productivity, or even mental health [7]. The propensity for these behaviors underpins the ubiquitous nature of mobile app addiction. Owing to the omnipresence of mobile devices, the line between moderate and excessive use has become increasingly blurred, thereby escalating the necessity to delve into the factors contributing to such addiction. The ubiquitous nature of mobile app addiction is underscored by emerging research, which delineates the cognitive and behavioral tendencies driving this phenomenon [8, 9]. As the ramifications of mobile app addiction seep into various facets of daily life, the exigency of investigating the underlying factors and promoting healthier digital consumption patterns is accentuated.

          https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10662456/ (peer reviewed article)

          A majority of the public is addicted to scrolling their phones or other “apps”. This is beyond all doubt an unhealthy addiction, both on an individual and society wide scale.

          • Uriel238 [all pronouns]
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            Our government is not interested in curbing the common need to cope. I submit that scrolling is safer than alcohol, tobacco and white supremacy activist meetings, or any frisbee park in Los Angeles.

            Were going to cope somehow, and so it’s a matter of harm caused on contrast to other means that are accepted and expected by society.

            Considering the same government asserted tabletop RPGs, rock and roll, and video games are dangerous, I question the veracity of the source.

  • ElPussyKangaroo
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    9 months ago
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    Heh, look at you, asking this in Lemmy, as if we’re all normal.

  • Graphy
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    Idk but wtf are people always doing on their phone in the car. Am I the weird one where I can’t even think of anything I’d like to do on my phone while driving? I can change media and text my wife all via voice control if I need to.

    • ALostInquirer
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      I used to try to use voice control for changing media when driving, but found it hilariously unreliable since it had to try to parse the voice command through the music. Is there a trick to that besides having a better mic I’m missing?

      • Graphy
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        Idk what system you’re using but I use CarPlay and android auto. Both of them are able to mute when I press the chat button or if I yell “hey whatever”

        • ALostInquirer
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          Older vehicle, so it’s basically just the phone and either an aux cable or bluetooth receiver, so that probably explains some of it 😅

      • indepndnt
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        I dunno about everything, but my car has a talk button on the steering wheel, I think you press it to answer the phone or whatever, but when Android Auto is active, that button works the same as saying OK Google”. I would imagine it does something similar with CarPlay. Maybe you have a similar button?

        • ObsidianZed
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          In my car (2016), Bluetooth supports phone calls and that’s it, so I have a separate Bluetooth receiver always plugged into my aux port. So I have to cycle music manually.

        • ALostInquirer
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          Similar to the other person that replied to ya, I’m in an older vehicle so I don’t have anything like that in mine, instead relying on either aux cable or bluetooth receiver to connect the phone to the audio system. It got to the point that I got a bluetooth media remote to get around the unreliability of voice commands.

  • csm10495English
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    Lots of people are on TikTok and Instagram.

    I on the other hand stare at the nearest wall.

    • soggy_kitty
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      I get the busy train to work every day and can confirm this statement. Everyone on Thier phones is either scrolling an app with pics/vids or messaging someone.

      The few left look at a wall, no other category

    • sarcharEnglish
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      Pleased to meet you, fellow wallwatcher.

  • HeavyRaptorEnglish
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    Normal people? Probably mostly Facebook, Instagram and candy crush. You can just take a look at the top free apps in your app store but I’ll give you a spoiler: it’s 99% junk.

    Okay so I actually checked. The top 3 are Temu (a ripoff shopping app), WhatsApp and Tiktok in my region

    • Mr_Blott
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      Just checked too

      Temu (sHoP LikE a biLLiONaIRe lol)

      Shein (Shiet)

      WhatsApp

      Clearly the french like shit quality and chatting

      • Facebones
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        Temu, TikTok, WhatsApp from my anon Aurora Store (access Google store without login