General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Why is DU's popularity waning? (Title edited, explanation within.) [View all]mike_c
(36,281 posts)I used to love participating here because I learned so much from thoughtful discussions with people who really seemed to know what they were talking about. When I stopped visiting regularly, it seemed like DU had degenerated into a blindly partisan opinion flinging-fest where points of view were entrenched rather than discussed, developed, or modified. I stopped learning things other than whom I didn't want to engage in flame wars with, which turned out to be a substantial number of current DUers, or at least current some months ago.
Interestingly, I haven't returned more than half a dozen or so times since last summer and most of those have been during the past week, and I found that getting out of the DU echo machine reduced my outrage fatigue considerably. I don't have television and get most of my news from print sources (mostly online), so what really changed is that I read less angry discussion now. The comments at the end of most unmoderated news stories are such a cesspool of incivility that it's easy to utterly disregard them.