Mastodon

Cute Mastodon plush toy, sitting in a camp chair in a green meadow.

Very many of us have been burned by social networking platforms that have let us down in some way. It’s been clear that Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk were horrid for some time, and spending time on Twitter and Facebook is downright unpleasant between the ads, algorithms and boosting of extremist content. The manner in which both have sucked up to the recently inaugurated Trump has been motivating many to part ways with the toxic platforms.

I have not deleted my accounts on X or Facebook, but as far as where I’m spending time I’m all about Mastodon. Mastodon is the decentralized, non-commercial social networking platform. Mastodon will never be owned by a private equity firm or a billionaire. It will never have advertisements, or mine user data for marketing or training AI. It does not have proprietary, unknowable algorithms designed to trap you and keep you scrolling.

Since making a more concerted effort to make Mastodon my primary online hangout in the Fall of 2024 I have made a lot of nice connections. Every platform has its unique character, and Mastodon is no different. It is definitely geeky, in the sense that most of the early adopters have some kind of tech background. I guess Mastodon has a reputation for being harder to use, and it may take a little more effort than the commercial alternatives, but not by much. I think that any extra effort is worth it. I will link to some explainers below, but I’ll just share a couple of words of wisdom, and leave it there.

  • Mastodon is decentralized, so you need to chose an instance where your account will live. All the Mastodon instances are part of the Fediverse, which connects users from all the instances (and the sister platforms like Peertube, Pixelfed and so on) and you can follow and interact with users across all instances. You can also move your account to another instance if you feel the need to do so later. I joined mastodon.social which is one of the oldest and largest, and I’ve been happy with it. I do think it’s worth spending a few moments to consider if you want to join a smaller, or more specialized instance, but I wouldn’t agonize over it. The full list of instances is here.
  • Once you sign up, you will want to fill out your profile. Add a profile picture and a bio with some of your interests. It is also recommended to make a post with the hashtag #introduction. Many people follow this hashtag and it’s a good way to connect with folks who may share your interests. Hashtags are very popular on Mastodon, and it’s a good practice to use appropriate hashtags in your posts. Hashtags are also a good way to find people who are posting about things that interest you. For instance I have made a number of connections from following #kpop.
  • Mastodon does have a reputation for being kind of “woke” of “politically correct” which is well deserved, but also not a bad thing in my opinion. Obviously bigotry and abuse are not appreciated, and presumably will get you blocked or kicked off. Putting alt text for the visually or hearing impaired is strongly encouraged. Content warnings for disturbing or adult content are pretty universally used. So if you have a problem with pronouns, LGBT+ folks, climate science or anything like that, then maybe Mastodon is not for you.

If this all sounds good to you, a good place to start is Fedi Tips.

You can find my profile here. Hope to see you on Mastodon!

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