Blocking keeps my feed nice. See people being assholes? Block them. See a post discussing something I don’t want to hear about? Block them. See a community I don’t want to hear about? Block them. The greatest thing about social media is the ability to never have to interact with someone again at no detriment to them. Blocking is good.
This is a good way to end up with a feed of only people who agree with you. Sounds nice, right?
If I’d done this in my early years on the internet, I might still be a right-wing Christian. Years of not having any good arguments against the atheists I encountered on the internet made a difference.
Same with my political leanings.
Confronting ideas you don’t agree with is a part of life and silencing opposing opinions puts you in danger of getting stuck in ideas that might not make sense.
I agree with your sentiment and I have definitely grown and my opinions have changed from the influence of people I have “met” online over the decades. However, none of the people who influenced me in positive ways were trolls, jerks, or snarky smart-asses. I really don’t think anything is lost if you block a lot of those type of people. I actually think something is gained. The amount of time and energy we are allotted to spend in this life are precious.
I block politics in general. If I want to discuss politics, I’ll do it with people in real life (or online with people I know in real life). I use social media mostly for entertainment and “why thing not work no more?” Kind of stuff.
Default lemmy feed is almost entirely left-wing content. By blocking half of these people it’s still all left-wing content. As a Lemmy user I wouldn’t really proud myself for having a diversified feed even if I didn’t block anyone.