I feel like there should be an optimal social media.

There’s a lot of different websites and apps out there that appeal to different niches, which is fine, of course, but does bother me to a certain extent — objectively, all the things that can be done in each app, could be done in one app.

I’m a big fan of the decentralization of Lemmy and Mastodon; I also understand the appeal of both long-form posts with thread-like comments for specific communities and personal account micro-blogging; and I can say the same for a lot of other social media apps.

That being said, however, I find it very irritating that these apps are different apps and not just one big “social media” sphere. The Fediverse is attempting to (more or less) correct this, but it’s not being particularly successful. You can kind of interact with Mastodon from Lemmy and vice versa, but the other Fediverse social medias are struggling to integrate.

To a certain extent, I get that keeping different sorts of social media in their little boxes helps foster a sort of subculture for each one; at the same time, I feel like that could also be achieved by using a single app and just letting users customize their experience.

I know I’m talking about this like it’s easy and simple when it’s really not, but I do think it’s more-or-less doable.

Hopefully we get there, at some point.

  • unemployedclaquer@sopuli.xyzEnglish
    4·
    4 days ago

    the big social media sphere exists, except it’s several different corporate spheres. I guess you get that.

    Unless you or me or someone else starts learning to code a cool solution, this is where we are.

    I have been online since the BBS days and I love the decentralized nature of Lemmy

    • BearOfaTime@lemm.ee
      2·
      4 days ago

      I think this is another scenario of competing standards, as XKCD lampooned so well.

      It’s also a failure on Op’s part to recognize that change is constant, so while you could possibly design “The One App” today, tomorrow someone will come up with a new idea that simply couldn’t be integrated into existing apps, let alone a “One App”.

      It’s the waterfall vs agile project management issue. With waterfall, you’re pretty much committed to decisions made long ago, it’s incredibly difficult to change directions. So you end up finishing building something today based on ideas from the past, with little ability to include things learned along the way.

    • gon [he]@lemm.eeOPM
      1·
      4 days ago

      Yeah… I’ve actually seen some apps that have both a Lemmy and Mastodon interface in the works and I know of Grayjay. They’re big on this “Polycentric identity” thing, which I think could be a way to sort out the different profiles in the different apps, and the app itself does combine a bunch of streaming services.

      You’re right though… Maybe I should just learn Flutter or something.

        • gon [he]@lemm.eeOPM
          1·
          4 days ago

          I was just trying to point out some partial “cool solutions” that some other people have already coded (or are in the process of coding); sorry that it was confusing…