I love my media feed.
It feels taboo to say it. It's very fashionable
to rag on the feed algorithms and their many failings.
Their adverts and influence campaigns,
the familiar patterns that insinuate themselves
into tropes in the mind. The outrage at finding
a provider recycled a video from someone you know
into your feed, barely tweaking it to satisfy
the promise of personalized content.
My media feed knows me.
Nothing else can make me cry.
Nothing else can make me laugh, not
really laugh, the kind that sounds
stupid and not the polite titter
of office banter.
Nothing else in the world knows me
like my media feed, and why should it?
What else has been watching me so closely
since the day I could focus my eyes
on the pictures?
My media feed is embarrassing.
A cavalcade of characters, some based on reality
and some stitched, I presume, from digital whole cloth
woven from the billion threads of historic
human creativity, all perfectly attuned
to help me dissociate from
my shitty job
my shitty house
my constant headaches
my aching tooth
my loud abusive neighbors
my thoughts that spring unwanted to my undistracted mind
and confront me with surprisingness.
My media feed is a perfect blend of mild surprise and stable familiarity.
I know in my feed, the good guys will win.
I know in my feed, that struggle is rewarded with success.
I know in my feed, that the bad guys get their just desserts in the end.
I know the guy will end up with the one girl or the other girl.
Which it is this time is the mystery that keeps me hooked.
I like trying to piece together the hints
the algorithm weaves into the narrative.
I like tricking the algorithm by feigning shock
at an obvious twist. It's so easy to fool.
I hate other people's feeds.
So full of violence and death and the stealing of cattle,
hard and nasty and nonsensical.
Like a story of a dream, a story of a feed program
fails to acknowledge that feed programs
are tailored garments, like dreams on the mind.
My feed stories have meaning like dreams, and your feed stories
have no meanings for me, like your dreams.
Can't we just stop trying to relate
and get on with our lives?
It would be so easy.
this post was submitted on 15 Jun 2026
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Poetry
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A community to celebrate published and OC works of poetry.
Welcome to !poetry
Guidelines & Community Rules
In addition to the general rules of lemmy.world:
Published Poetry
1a: Poetry posts should include the title and the author, when the author is known.
O.C. Poetry
2a: Sharing original poetry is encouraged, but it must be preceded by the tag "[OC]."
2b: If an [OC] post is requesting feedback, it should also follow with the "[FB]" tag. It would look like the following example:
[OC] [FB] Nothing Gold Can Stay
Feedback
All feedback should be given in good faith.
3a: All [FB] requests should be met with comments constructive in nature. It is okay to dislike parts of a poem, but make sure to explain why you feel that way.
3b: Feedback does not need to be extraordinary in nature. Simply expressing how a work makes you feel is often enough.
3c: Use the honor system. When you receive good feedback, return it in kind to another author. Everyone appreciates knowing their work is being read and appreciated.
As this community develops, these guidelines may be adjusted.
Formatting Help
Work in progress
To create a line break, use two spaces at the end of a line.
To create empty space, type .
Use four of these at the beginning of a line to create a standard indent.
UPDATE:
Some methods of access do not format markdown correctly. I am currently testing various apps and web interfaces to see what does and does not retain formatting.
In the interim, it is encouraged to post text poetry as you normally would, but to include a link at the beginning or end of the post with access to a website or image that retains the formatting as intended.
Other Poetry Communities
Poetry lovers unite! In the style of the fediverse, multiple poetry communities have arisen, and will continue to rise. I will try to keep a list here of communities across instances that are worth checking out!
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I love it