i think the users might actually be slightly increasing but the doomerism is dominating

No, not really

MY BAD, I'LL SPEAK A LITTLE LOUDER (:

... I need to post more lol

Not sure about Lemmy, but I have noticed a very recent influx in loops.video content recently, especially in my native language. That's probably because Loops is starting to be usable now. There's some YouTubers I already followed and even some local progressive politicians. This year a project named "digital day of independence" started, that educates people every month about how to switch from big tech, which probably also has something to do with it.

To be frank the overwhelming amount of trump news is starting to make me feel drained
I should post some art on the furry communities to cheer up the place

I am a newcomer, lile only had an account for a monnth now, did it used to be more lively?

I've been here a year or more now, it seems busier than when I started but never became the "reddit alternative" that so many people promised. Not that I was actually expecting it.

I still have accounts on other major platforms but I'm far more restricted what I can say in more commercial sites like reddit or youtube now, I notice I get shadow'd if I so much as utter a political take that isn't approved for mainstream consumption. Lemmy still has a degree of freedom that reminds me of the early internet, but I know the site's days are numbered, like everyone.

Since I got here, there are more and more bots and shills and astroturfers creeping in, and I don't mean "I don't like what this person said so they must be a bot" way, but investigated and 99% sure they're fabricated accounts, especially the ones that popped up everywhere during things like the New York elections with account-ages all made at the same time, etc.

Lemmy is just one of a dwindling list of forums and sites that preserve the old way of internetting, but it's a dying thing. Younger people growing up on the internet don't chat on forums, they don't scroll reddit even. They have custom feeds on custom aggregators and they socialize with discord groups about specific topics and games and are far less involved with the idea of public discourse.

Reddit will die. Lemmy will die. All the old ways will pass, and new things will emerge. I've seen it over and over, and have ridden through them all.

I’ve noticed I spend less time on Lemmy than I did on Reddit. Some of that may have to do with content, but I think it’s mostly Lemmy isn’t manipulating what I’m looking at to keep the dopamine hits coming. It definitely feels like withdrawal at times.

I am learning to appreciate the joy of opening Lemmy after I checked it a few hours ago and not seeing anything new and having the freedom to close the app again.

Not me, but it's important to remember that Lemmy doesn't just feed you an algo. You have to actually post things.

Nah, I'm just checking it more often, which is a sign I need to take some preventative corrections towards my mental health now that I think of it

Not quieter, no, but the memes are all gone now. It's just "This is how fucked the world is" now. I miss the funny memes.

I post daily and have a fairly steady amount of up votes and comments. This time of year interaction dies down pretty noticeably. I used to think it was me and I was doing something wrong, but people are just doing spring stuff and not on here as much. They'll be back. There's a couple periods a year where it happens. It's just more noticeable here since we have less people.

Gotta build the community. This is not a bot driven Russian/american Propaganda machine. Its humans. A lot like forums from ye olden days, which were far better.

Real humans aren't posting click bait 2000 times a minute.

I honestly don't mind. Before this was the replacement go to site after the API fiasco elsewhere. Now I feel like coming on here only makes me sad and depressed; so I stopped coming on here even though I was mostly a lurker. I stopped getting any enjoyment from browsing the internet or my old internet hobbies.

The problem is that I'm enjoying it and want to consume more than is there.

I might actually start posting instead of just commenting. It's horrible.

Good. Get off the internet and do anything else.x

Weirdly in my own personal experience, a lot of social media spaces have been quieter, with many people I know who used to be avid posters are now no longer posting at all.

For the fediverse specifically, there's definitely higher activity hours and low ones. Sometimes refreshing the feed has nothing new for like ~20 minutes, and sometimes its every time I refresh, which is kind of odd.