There is no one behind the scenes trying to make Lemmy more addictive like seen at other major social media giants where employees openly talk about being like drug dealers.
Lemmy is also not using algorithms to push political content or advertising. While these both exist on Lemmy, no one is being paid to push these into your feed.
Anything can be addictive, but the defining feature is causing problems in your daily activities of life. I have yet to hear about Lemmy causing this issue but I have seen this on other platforms such as FB, Snap, Insta, X, etc.
I certainly do use Lemmy every day, so it’s definitely attractive. It doesn’t seem to be causing any harm yet, so I guess it’s still far from being addictive in the technical sense of the word.
Just remembered that Reddit has streaks and achievements now. Could you call that a dark pattern? Either way, it’s definitely manipulating the users into spending more time on Reddit than they otherwise would, and that’s the first step towards addiction. IMO that sort of thing is clearly unethical and pretty dark in general. By contrast, Lemmy doesn’t have that sort of “engagement enhancing” corporate cancer.
The fundamentals are still the same, so in that sense you’re absolutely correct.
There are major differences that make Lemmy better though.
Sure sounds like addictive features to me
There is no one behind the scenes trying to make Lemmy more addictive like seen at other major social media giants where employees openly talk about being like drug dealers.
Lemmy is also not using algorithms to push political content or advertising. While these both exist on Lemmy, no one is being paid to push these into your feed.
https://www.politico.com/news/2025/11/22/were-basically-pushers-court-filings-allege-staff-at-social-media-giants-compared-their-platforms-to-drugs-00666181
https://counterhate.com/blog/what-are-algorithms-and-how-do-they-make-social-media-more-harmful/
Anything can be addictive, but the defining feature is causing problems in your daily activities of life. I have yet to hear about Lemmy causing this issue but I have seen this on other platforms such as FB, Snap, Insta, X, etc.
I certainly do use Lemmy every day, so it’s definitely attractive. It doesn’t seem to be causing any harm yet, so I guess it’s still far from being addictive in the technical sense of the word.
Just remembered that Reddit has streaks and achievements now. Could you call that a dark pattern? Either way, it’s definitely manipulating the users into spending more time on Reddit than they otherwise would, and that’s the first step towards addiction. IMO that sort of thing is clearly unethical and pretty dark in general. By contrast, Lemmy doesn’t have that sort of “engagement enhancing” corporate cancer.