> the "dumb" feed from my instance was already enough to waste my time

I guess you joined a crappy instance. The Explore feed on my instance is freakin' awesome and full of a constant stream of interesting and enjoyable posts by cool people. Mastodon isn't very optimal when you join the biggest instances on the network (like mastodon.social or similar). The tech is best experienced with invite-only communities of people who agree on a basic set of standards for their social experience.

This feels like the most important comment here. Do other Mastodon users feel the same? The OP Madden me want to try Mastodon.

yeah the instance timeline is basically the same trap with a smaller corpus. the only thing that consistently avoids this is RSS -- you chose the sources, there's no explore, no trending, no algorithmic sidebar. maybe the "social" part was always the problem.

What extensions do you recommend?

I have never used the explore function of any social media app ever. I never want it, I have never found it useful. If I want random submitted content by strangers I go to message boards/forums/etc. That was a great space reddit filled for years, now HN for me.

Social media is at its best when it’s just stuff from people I choose to follow or know.