Lemmy will grow, but for right now it does not meet every need. Perhaps it never will. Especially with lives and livelihoods on the line, you must do whatever works best for you, so please do not feel guilty.

There are things for which there is no Reddit alternative yet. Does it suck you have to use it? Sure. But you aren’t evil for using a platform with terrible management for discussing something important to you (especially if it’s related to work) when there’s no viable alternative. You may try starting a parallel community here, and perhaps it’d turn into something great years from now on, but that’s no solution to a need you have right now.

Frankly I have no good way of using Reddit anymore. I browse certain subs using an RSS reader, but without RiF I have no desire to actually engage with the site.

nobody’s judging, I sometimes shamelessly click on some reddit links in google results, I just try to not interact, i don’t think it’s a shame to use reddit if lemmy doesn’t suit your needs, i mean there’s your validation if you need it, it’s your life

That is all fair. My take is to lurk on Reddit and post as little as possible without logging in (and using alternative front ends like Libreddit or Stealth when you can). If you need to post, either because you need a quick answer to a question or want to help out someone with a question, do it, but consider posting the content to related communities on federated platforms as much as possible.

The centralized internet is only now being more widely criticized by …well, not the mainstream, but certainly more people as of late, and continuing to put more and more content onto federated platforms, while putting less and less content onto centralized ones is needed to help balance the scales against the tech giants.

TLDR; Do what you can to stay off of Reddit. Lurk on alternative front ends, and when you do post, consider posting in similar fediverse communities. Try to migrate onto more federated platforms as big tech be evil.

Good question imo.

Apart from the fact that your points are valid, they are also connected to reddit being held by a singular entity imo.

• more users
• more streamlined
• more niche stuff
• more mainstream stuff

As you already stated: reddit monetizes every word you write and everything you write is at risk to being paywalled/removed not because it is political or breaks the rules but because it is helpful.

The amount of harm the corporate social media has caused and will be able to cause in the future is immense.

Being in the medical field may help you understand how important it is to keep people from harm. Some of the people you treat may have been physically harmed by a psychopath. Big companies are known to behave exactly like this. If harming you makes them money, they will.

And besides, you don’t need to leave reddit entirely. You should definitely read the stuff you need there, but you could make it a habit to always try and post helpful advice in the fediverse/on lemmy so that your content stays in case corpo paywall.

Part of contributing to the democratic discourse (like voting) is screaming into the void and waiting for someone to listen. But if youre persistent, people will listen

Well, there’s Libreddit. If you absolutely must browse reddit, consider using Libreddit instead. No interactions though (there’s lemmy for that :p).

If you need information that are only discussed in Reddit, why are you here in the first place? You tried to escape from Spez, right? If you really are concerned anout the governance of Reddit, stay here and invite Redditors here so population here will be larger, but if you’re not, go back to Reddit for bigger community.

If reddit provides value to you, extract that shit. That’s what it’s doing to its users after all.

A lot of people are hung up on Reddit monetising itself, but a nursing subreddit itself is a community canoe sailing alongside major subreddit money making gold encrusted galleons, and to be honest, if you’re using Reddit with proper discernment then you’re not feeding the beast per se.

Lemmy just doesn’t have a large enough userbase for those niche communities yet. Of course you’re still gonna need reddit if you need those specific communities lol

No you probably still need reddit. It’s OK. :)

Your first problem isn’t using Reddit. It’s asking others for their opinion on whether or not you should.

If you need to use Reddit, that’s your justification. Don’t worry about what people here think.

I’ll tell you my approach and you can use it for inspiration, but keep in mind everyone is different.

I deleted the Reddit app, but still use Reddit sometimes through the browser. This caused me to use Reddit far less, and primarily use lemmy unless what I need is not found on lemmy.

Sometimes what I need is info from a specific community like you mentioned. For example, I am Arab, and there’s very few Arabs on lemmy.

In your case, Reddit might be less rare than me. It might be more practical for you to use both apps, or maybe just not use lemmy at all. It all depends on your priorities and what you’re looking for.

Honestly, it’s cool that you’re doing what you can to make the world a better place, and that matters more than anything. I do not support Reddit’s politics and policies and I am able to avoid it completely. I feel that is a net positive in the world. You’re a nurse. Your job is to help people. If minimizing your Reddit usage helps to reduce Reddit’s ad revenue, but using it a little bit still helps you be a better or happier or more sane nurse, then it sounds like that’s a good thing. Maybe keep your eyes peeled for alternate growing communities, but I think you’re already pretty cool for using Reddit less, but still using it when it helps you make the world a better place in other aspects of your life.