Ask Lemmy

Yes, because then we won't have to read questions like this (from you) anymore.

(More seriously, no one can tell you what to do. I don't regularly use any public chatrooms anymore because I have better things to do with my time nowadays, but I pretty much grew up on IRC, so I can't give any advice to a stranger.)

I think it's better to baby steps it by not using those apps -- or some of those apps first. Maybe you had other uses for said apps other than making friends... I dunno.

And then figure out what works.

It’s a big step, but if you want to do it, it’s your decision.

Yes do it.

Yea

You do you. If you're having a better time at Discord, just go there and have fun. I don't relly like it, so I wouldn't do it, but that's me. Any reason why you want to tear down the bridges? I mean you could as well leave the accounts in place until you made a final decision?

A few problems of chat only:

1. Time differences mean you'll likely only socialize with a limited group and miss out on cool people and discussions not synchronous to your active times.
2. Ephemeral nature of chat discussions make it hard to keep track of long running efforts where today's discussions could benefit from knowing the previous discussion points.
3. Chat apps tend to be closed networks, which might make it difficult to reach the people you'd like to interact with.

None of these are show stoppers, and there are benefits to limiting your digital presence.

That all being said: Real friendships tend to require a lot of work and most people can only usually put the work in for a handful. In general, keeping in touch with those you want in that handful is best as follows: real world in-person > 1:1 synchronous video/virtual world/chat > group chat platforms (discord, etc) > letters > emails > blogs > microblogs.

Outside of those few, its good to still get out and do social networking regardless of the technology. For people I want to collaborate, collaboration platforms (Codeberg, etc) and messaging can work great if in-person doesn't work for whatever reason (typically time & distance). For interesting online acquaintances, filtered blog/microblog feeds seem to get the best time/benefit ratio.

It's also really good to do event based networking, such as hackathons, board game nights/bars, and community service. Letting people find you has its benefits too, I recommend looking into the IndieWeb on how to best do that if you want to be found.