Yes, this again.
Slowly but surely, Mastodon is becoming my sole social media platform, and it feels good. I’m still active on Instagram because I must be (unfortunately Pixelfed isn’t quite there yet, but I’ll probably jump on board that soon too. I want it to be a thing). One of the interesting trends I’m seeing now that people are starting to settle in, is a good number of the public posts on the platform are about being on the platform itself, and how different the experience is to algorithmic, corporate platforms.
It’s a slow realization, how different you need to think. Twitter and Facebook have trained us, particularly “content creators”, to think in terms of “exposure” and “engagement”. We treat the platforms as a megaphone, blasting out hashtags like fishing nets hoping to snare passing trout. The algorithms then use those hashtags and measure things like Likes and Shares to push those things to the people it decides should see it, and, of course, to those who pay advertising dollars. It’s a popularity contest wherein they with either the most addictive content or simply the most dollars, wins.
The Fediverse (and hence Mastodon) isn’t like that at all. Hashtags exist so people can find what they’re looking for, actively, not to try and steer some algorithm. Likes (Favourites) don’t have any mechanical function. They exist solely to let the poster know that you, a person, read this thing and appreciated it. The value is entirely human. It’s literally a “thank you”. It’s good manners on the Internet, if you can imagine such a thing.
This all means that Mastodon is much more about people having conversations and engaging with each other, rather than trying to game some system. It’s not the Vegas strip with hucksters shouting at you to “Step Right Up!”, it’s a community centre with a flea market (car boot sale to our UK friends) sometimes attached.
What this means is there’s no toxic loop of “engagement”. The overall mindset is far more genuine and kinder, because by and large, that’s what most people actually are. Toxic internet behavior is not the norm, nor the default. It’s an aberration caused by insular psychology exacerbated by the algorithmic model. And there is a choice, now more than ever.
I don’t want to sell it as some Utopia of course. There are problems and toxic people just like everywhere; but the fact that it’s not only easy to filter them out but they are by far the minority is enough to make you realize that maybe, just maybe, the world isn’t quite as awful as it seems.
Mr. Rogers famously said, in times of crisis, “look for the helpers”. I know where you can find a bunch of them.