In the world of microblogging, the thing to do now is to join Bluesky. It is a new social media platform similar to X (Twitter). Some try to use both, others are religiously committed to X. However, I have no interest in either.
Mastodon is good enough for me
The platform I’m used to and prefer Mastodon. I’ve been using it for about two years, after I left Twitter. It is unique among social media platforms because of its “unified” networking system. I won’t go into exactly what that means, but what interests me about it is that it prevents financial interests from taking control. Bluesky is funded by venture capitalists Who would expect a return on investment, and I don’t intend to make my portfolio a part of that return.
However, a common criticism of Mastodon is that there simply aren’t many people there. Detractors have also noted that it’s difficult to find people out there because Mastodon lacks a proper algorithm. I understand the frustration there, but I love the charm of this little one. I see mostly the same people, people I like, in my feed and on my local servers, as well as people they think deserve a boost. You might say I’m living in a bubble, and I certainly probably am. Then again, who isn’t?
There’s an “Explore” page, if you really want to see what’s popular across federated servers. It tends to be fairly up to date with the latest news being discussed. However, this is another way I stray from the mainstream: I don’t really care about being the first to know anything. At least I don’t if it doesn’t affect me directly. Things like this tend to be physically near me, and I’m part of enough chats in the local community that I don’t need to try to find that on Mastodon.
To be fair, I don’t post much, at least not under my own name. I use social media mostly to find memes, news, and sometimes to listen to specific people I like. Maybe if I posted more instead of just lurking, I would have stronger feelings that would pull me away from Mastodon. Right now, those feelings haven’t arrived.
Anyway, I’m tired of creating new accounts
Another negative feeling I get when I hear about people jumping on the Bluesky train is fatigue. I’m tired of creating new accounts and learning new interfaces. It may not be a week anymore that I no longer have to click another “Download our app” link and “Register Now” button. I feel like my email is being authenticated to death. There is a mental barrier to entry that may not exist for others but certainly exists for me.
Don’t even get me started on the countless privacy and security risks I have to take with each of these accounts. God only knows where my personal data will go at this point; It seems more a matter of where not so My data and who He didn’t do that Break it. I would gladly accept a less lively microblogging platform for the sake of greater online security.
Mastodon is not a perfect microblogging platform. It has more issues that I didn’t mention, including still limited security and privacy features, and the barrier to entry of server selection. Suffice it to say that in terms of what I look for in social media, Mastodon is enough for me for now.
(tags for translation) Social Media