this post was submitted on 12 Jun 2025
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Showerthoughts

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A "Showerthought" is a simple term used to describe the thoughts that pop into your head while you're doing everyday things like taking a shower, driving, or just daydreaming. The most popular seem to be lighthearted clever little truths, hidden in daily life.

Here are some examples to inspire your own showerthoughts:

Rules

  1. All posts must be showerthoughts
  2. The entire showerthought must be in the title
  3. No politics
    • If your topic is in a grey area, please phrase it to emphasize the fascinating aspects, not the dramatic aspects. You can do this by avoiding overly politicized terms such as "capitalism" and "communism". If you must make comparisons, you can say something is different without saying something is better/worse.
    • A good place for politics is c/politicaldiscussion
  4. Posts must be original/unique
  5. Adhere to Lemmy's Code of Conduct and the TOS

If you made it this far, showerthoughts is accepting new mods. This community is generally tame so its not a lot of work, but having a few more mods would help reports get addressed a little sooner.

Whats it like to be a mod? Reports just show up as messages in your Lemmy inbox, and if a different mod has already addressed the report, the message goes away and you never worry about it.

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[–] TropicalDingdong@lemmy.world 18 points 1 month ago

Instructions unclear, upvoted without reading.

[–] nucleative@lemmy.world 15 points 1 month ago

Most social media is the wrong format for long-term discussion. Whatever you post, it will soon be replaced by something newer.

Consumers just want that quick dopamine hit every time they open the app.

There are still quite a few phpBB-style bulletin boards out there with threads that survive for years. I think that's the social media you're looking for.

[–] Sunsofold@lemmings.world 12 points 1 month ago (1 children)

The First Mover Advantage is not exclusive to social media. It's inherent to life in scarcity. First to run to the feast gets the pick of the food. First to run from the tiger has the most targets between the tiger and their bum. First company to sell a thingle gets 100% of the market until a competitor arrives, including 100% name recognition, 100% network dominance, etc.

[–] Tehdastehdas@piefed.social 3 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)
[–] SoleInvictus@lemmy.blahaj.zone 9 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I don't understand the point of your comment. It's the First-Mover Advantage, not the "First Mover always wins in perpetuity".

[–] Tehdastehdas@piefed.social 4 points 1 month ago (1 children)
[–] SoleInvictus@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 points 1 month ago

Ahhh, I didn't know about this, but it makes sense. Very interesting, thanks for sharing!

[–] sanderium@lemmy.zip 11 points 1 month ago (2 children)

What do you mean by first come, first served exactly? Are you refering specifically to interactions between news outlets and users?

[–] DandomRude@lemmy.world 23 points 1 month ago (3 children)

I mean, the quality of content hardly matters if you're late. If you waited just one day to respond to this post, no one would notice your comment.

[–] UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 4 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Fortunately, you can just sit on it and wait for the inevitable bevvy of reposts.

[–] DandomRude@lemmy.world 8 points 1 month ago

{Placeholder for a particularly witty comment next time}

[–] Nougat@fedia.io 3 points 1 month ago (1 children)

It's not like there's only one thread about a specific subject. There's always a new post to add your commentary to, often enough a post of the exact same link/meme/question. If you come late to the first one you see, spend some time refining your idea, wait five minutes, and comment on the next one.

[–] DandomRude@lemmy.world 4 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Yes, but there's no guarantee that this topic will ever be discussed again. It's a bit like when you think of a good comeback after a verbal exchange - you have the right argument, but it doesn't matter anymore. Next time, you'll be prepared, but next time may never come.

[–] Nougat@fedia.io 1 points 1 month ago (1 children)

There are no guarantees in life. Missing out on something isn't a problem with where you find that thing, and it's not your fault, either. You don't get to do everything you want, sorry.

[–] DandomRude@lemmy.world 4 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Sure. But what I'm getting at is that this way of consuming information likely leads to people being anything but well informed. Because of this social media "newswoth" logic, they mainly read content that isn't very well thought out – if only because it was written under time pressure.

[–] Nougat@fedia.io 1 points 1 month ago

William Randolph Hearst has entered the chat.

[–] sanderium@lemmy.zip 1 points 1 month ago

I guess that is true, but that would only be a negative thing if you wanted attention(which is not necessarily a bad thing). If one is not sure people would respond your comment, one can always mention a post from the past and ask whatever information you were looking. And I would argue this happens in real life aswell, you can't always force a joke on an old topic at a dinner or party.

[–] Bassman1805@lemmy.world 9 points 1 month ago (3 children)
[–] ogmios@sh.itjust.works 7 points 1 month ago (1 children)

That same problem still exists even when sorting by upvotes, because the earlier a comment is posted the more people will see and be able to vote on it, pushing it higher.

[–] TranquilTurbulence@lemmy.zip 3 points 1 month ago

That’s a very good point. Also, the later comments don’t get seen by many people, and that’s why they don’t get many votes either.

Obviously, sorting changes all that, but I don’t think many people sort posts and comments by new. If you don’t touch the settings, things are sorted by hot.

[–] UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 3 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (2 children)

What kind of slob gets their opinions from the comments sections of a local news outlet?

Hell, do major publications even have comments sections anymore? I'm lucky to see the first paragraph of a story after the barrage of "Please Sign In!" pop-ups. Nevermind getting all the way down to the bottom of the article to see what some random assholes think about it.

[–] Bassman1805@lemmy.world 2 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

I mean...

[Gestures broadly at the state of the world]

People see headlines and the comment section of the social media platform where that headline was posted.

[–] TranquilTurbulence@lemmy.zip 1 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Web 2.0 was such a nice idea on paper.

[–] UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 5 points 1 month ago

It was great when they'd tricked investors into giving users an ecosystem with no (obvious) ads.

[–] sanderium@lemmy.zip 1 points 1 month ago

That makes sense

[–] foggy@lemmy.world 10 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

That is what aggregators served to defeat. Like Digg, reddit, or Lemmy. That's what votes and "top hot trending" filters are all for.

Not saying the resolve the issue, just saying this is well known and understood

[–] Rhynoplaz@lemmy.world 9 points 1 month ago
[–] PeriodicallyPedantic@lemmy.ca 8 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Social media?
More like... The regular media. RIP journalism

[–] homesweethomeMrL@lemmy.world 5 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I dunno, somehow tumblr seems to do ok with the considered takes.

[–] underline960@sh.itjust.works 5 points 1 month ago (1 children)

What you do is you go into the tumblr mines to screenshot someone else's considered takes, and then be the first to post it somewhere else.

[–] homesweethomeMrL@lemmy.world 3 points 1 month ago

Wh- whaaaaat? Ha ha. I don’t - that’s not - I would never! OMG that’s just so crazy to think. That people would, y’know, do. That.

[–] Fleur_@aussie.zone 3 points 1 month ago

Well it's not like people are really here for long format posts. Those people are probably reading books.