It’s not uncommon to want to stay connected to others and especially in the modern world, doing so online is not only convenient, it’s expected by many to be a significant way to socialize (or “socialize”). As someone who was online back around 1990, I not only agree with the sentiment: it has been a significant reality for me and responsible for many great things in my life.
However, over the decades since, the free flow of information has become fouled as it became obvious that our eyeballs could be captured for advertising, free access could turn a profit one way or another…and now, even all of the ideas, art and other creations we’ve shared with one another are being turned into products. Products they expect us to want to buy, after getting no credit, asking no permission for their reuse…
Facebook, for example, doesn’t want us to have full, free access to one another’s posts. They have their thumb on the scale, ensuring that those who pay get in front of our eyeballs. The sponsored posts, fake accounts and now AI all seek to occupy our feeds, pushing out the posts we want to see. Same on Instagram. Same on Pintrest (only worse).
I’m trying to engage differently online, maybe get back to ad-free streams of friends’ notes, discovering new and interesting folks from all over the world as I rabbit hole down shared links… First, I stopped posting to FB almost completely; I’ll read the groups I’m in, follow friends’ posts, but I won’t post for the most part (other than to rail against FB) ;)
Discord?
While Discord has taken off in many of my circles, it’s not immune to following suit; there’s rumors of an IPO and more and more features are pushed as reasons for subscribing…but the value just isn’t there. Discord is better for discussions than something like Facebook (try searching for a keyword or phrase to find something you just read…) but if it starts selling data, ads, throttling features…
Mastodon
Mastodon’s great; it took a while to grow on me, but part of that was from using the web interface versus a client. As much as I like information, being presented with four columns on a 4:3 ratio screen was jarring. I’ve gotten used to that aspect, though, and discovered the real strengths of the platform.
You will see everything that you want to see.
Everything.
First, though, you need some leads on who to read, what tags to follow, etc. but starting on an appropriate home server can help a lot in that regard.
Still, I think I want to write up an intro to Mastodon…
Friendica? GoToSocial? BookWyrm? Matrix?
…I don’t know. I may get into other Fediverse services like these. That they all interact nicely is a plus but I just haven’t had the energy or motivation just yet… Maybe if I knew Friendica would entice more folks over from FB…but for now, having this site for a digital garden is great and Mastodon’s right there for microblogging and reading…