[b3orn]

> we completely miss out on what's happening in our own local area.

Almost every larger city has a more or less active subreddit these days, on platforms like Twitter you can look what people post with a city name tag. And then there are Mastodon and Lemmy/Piefed with instances for geographic regions.

[asdff]

Local subreddits I follow have taken an absolute nosedive. They got astroturfed hard in recent election cycles and most people who are still left on their posting are people who legitimately need to go and touch grass. Everything is a 10 alarm crisis. No one actually understands anything beyond a baity headline interpretation of whatever issue is at hand. Have a benign opinion like "I actually think our city is pretty walkable as it is and I enjoy walking around" and you are met with downvotes and pitchforks for going against the narrative that everything is terrible and you should be shut inside. God forbid you indicate you have been biking around town without 1100 miles of bike lane being constructed first. You will get lectured and talked down for having wrong opinion.