The emergence of social media has destroyed all the small communities to standardize communication and information.
It’s a bit of a digital version of rural exodus. And since 2017/2018, I’ve noticed that everything that, in my opinion, represented the internet has disappeared.
I’ve known Lemmy for a few hours and I feel like I’m back in the early spirit of the internet.
OP is asking about where to find cute, locally owned retailers & you are telling them they can find the same shit at the mall.
No, I’m telling them that the cute, locally owned retailers are in the mall.
Take discord for example - I’m in a small group with like 120ish other people who play an old game online. I also used to be on the subreddit which was small and not garbage unlike the majority of reddit, until I left along with a lot of the others for discord.
The point is there are tonnes of small sub communities on the big platforms. It helps with visibility and user base.