I hear your point but also it might be a mostly first world thing. So kinda like comparing local country music artists to Michael Jackson. Maybe other 3rd world denizens can chip in but here (so this is purely anecdotal) but in my corner of the world, we watched movies and series and played games and shit like we would’ve pre social media.

Personally I’m not even sure what Tiger King is (and not that interested in finding out either, if I’m being honest) and if I go outside and ask around here, I’m not sure how many answers I would get. Possibly I’d get an answer once school is out and kids are around, I guess.

Edit: just to add, I hope this doesn’t go the same way as the time I was trying to explain to Americans that the NBA really isn’t this global phenomenon in every household and that John Cena is probably more famous here.

Is that really the same thing though? Just for a random example of the first actor that popped in my head, Chloe Grace Moretz probably doesn’t have as big a social media following as Skibidi Kid or whereas I could probably find random people in the streets in the 3rd world country that I live in if I just had to start bringing up her name without any further details. Whereas Skibidi Kid is only known by the other Skibidi kids on that particular platform and probably won’t even be a big deal next year, like Dab Kid.

I used to see people express the same sentiment towards YouTubers and it’s the same deal there IMO. SaltyPeeDrinker or whatever might cause a big ruckus in certain circles on the internet and have a bunch of incel fans but outside of the internet and in the real world, nobody actually gives a fuck. Not in remotely the same way as with movie stars, music stars, sports stars etc. These people aren’t that important or significant, they’re just another feature of online brainrot.

Edit: I feel like online ‘content’ creators are related to actors and musicians in the same way that AI art is related to human art or reality TV is related to Breaking Bad.

English or history. They were both subjects in high school where I could not even study and just wing it with walls of text. As long as spelling and grammar and shit were good and in the case of history, being able to refer to key things from the text book occasionally, I was scoring in the 90s. I’ve gone a bit feral in that regard over the years since then but if my path was to be a teacher, I think that’s what I would’ve gone for.

Just want to add that a big deciding factor in that as well is how cool my english and history teachers in high school were. A married couple that I honestly credit with helping shape certain good parts of who I am. I was honestly borderline anarchistic (definitely anti-authoritarian) in my writings and I think they liked it and nurtured it a little bit.

One moment that stuck with me that I never realised the significance of was my history teacher bringing up how schools have a hidden curriculum. How beyond being taught how to behave in society, it also enforces cultural things like one race’s set of norms and standards or teaching boys to behave like boys and girls to behave like girls (which is a line I even specifically remember him using). And I remember being a little bit outraged about the idea of a hidden curriculum and this fucking guy smiled and kept the conversation going and told me more.

Here’s to you Mr. and Mrs. Owen. They’d be pretty old if they were still alive. I’d be either an english or history teacher because of them.

Edit: just for extra context, for high school I went a boarding school in a very Christian and religious small town and it wasn’t the best of times for me, to say the least. There were a couple of decent teachers but most are wrinkled up, mean, dogmatic pieces of shit in my memory. So these two teachers were special.

I’m only a day in of trying to get away from this, and I’m mostly talking about Lemmy right now (but it would also work / help on Bluesky), but something that’s already made a huge difference for me personally since yesterday, is separating the feeds. I woke up this morning and scrolled through content that didn’t make me want to start a revolution first thing in the morning and I’m already having a pretty good day for it.

I decided to cut most news and politics out of my subscriptions, other than maybe some small communities that don’t show up on ‘All’ on a 24 hour cycle. So from now on, my subscriptions will be only things that interest me and not enrage me. And ‘All’ is still there if I happen to feel like indulging in the rage for a little bit.

Also, finding a server that’s more tailored to what you personally vibe with adds a 3rd option in the ‘Local’ tab for a feed that doesn’t destroy your soul piece by piece.

So the ‘Reddit’ experience is still there in the ‘All’ tab, for everything. From rage to cool shit you haven’t subscribed to yet. But you don’t have to spend all day there. You can fill the other two tabs with stuff that makes you smile or learn or that aligns with your interests / career / philosophy or whatever. And spend more time there.

I was doing the same when I gave Bluesky a try, making use of different feeds for different things. Keep the news and politics in its own tab and only go there when you feel like catching up, or if you’re specifically in the mood to rage against the machine.