a 20 year debt to society

It could actually be way more than that when you consider retirement (in much of the western world at least). You also can’t really “have agency over yourself” in the sense you mean without making use of what society puts at everyone else’s disposal (roads/internet/currency/etc), and freeloading comes with all sorts of drawbacks because society is shaped in a way that doesn’t reward it for obvious reasons.

I guess the point is you’re middle aged in regards to your contribution to society. First 15-20 years of your life you pretty much just “take”, while the following 50ish you are expected to chip in. In those terms, 50 sounds about right as being referred to as “middle aged”.

Why is everyone so upset?

You know why, it’s because in the eyes of Lemmy users who have been here all along, launch of Sync is the start of their eternal September. I moved to reddit back in 2010 as a Digg refugee after the infamous redesign, I saw much of the same back then (down to the plethora of programming and Linux memes).

There’s a golden ratio somewhere, it feels like Reddit has become overflown with posts and empty discussions, even on relatively niche subs. I could get behind a more sane approach to my web browsing habits but of course it will take some time.

I know I started being active here because of Sync, so I’d assume plenty others did too. Honestly I wish there was a Sync-like frontend for most apps, it’s just the perfect experience in my book.