this post was submitted on 28 Oct 2024
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Relaxed section for discussion and debate that doesn't fit anywhere else. Whether it's advice, how your week is going, a link that's at the back of your mind, or something like that, it can likely go here.
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I have a separate account from Beehaw, which I use on a different Mastodon instance. I created it about a year ago. I also recently created a Bluesky account (I know, I know, proprietary social media...)
So for Mastodon, I've noticed it's harder to find the content I'm interested in. My instance is small, but active, so I find that I mostly interact with the folks there. Which is fine, it's our own little community of mostly political memes and life and work and such. That said, our instance is well-federated, so I do get some interaction with others outside of it.
But on Bluesky, maybe because it's algorithmic, right away I'm seeing content that I'm interested in. Gaming, anime, arts, news, tech. And in some ways, it feels more like Twitter back in 2009, when I initially created my (now-deleted) account there.
@JCPhoenix Thanks so much! Do you feel like in comparison to other, algorithmic social media like Bluesky and Twitter, the decentralization of mastodon allows you to avoid outcomes that might make those other platforms less attractive to you?
Not sure. And not sure I ever thought about it that way. I get the point of decentralization. Ideally, it allows us to avoid what's happened to Twitter and reddit and other platforms. Plus there're are safety considerations (like Beehaw defederating from some less-moderated instances, even if they are larger). Basically, enshittification, in various ways.
But that's not why I'm on the Fediverse. In fact, I'm still using proprietary platforms like reddit and Instagram. I may have come over here in the last year, after reddit's APIgate, but I didn't stay because of the FOSS/decentralized principles. It's mainly because these communities and the people are cool. I don't mind spending my times in these different communities, because they're offering something different from each other.
I guess to me, these are all just tools. Tools to connect people with each other. And so long as I find a tool useful and isn't too awful -- looking at you, Twitter...deleted my 14yo account last year) -- I'll keep using it.
I don't know if that's answers your question, lol.
@JCPhoenix I see! Your answers are very helpful! One of the topics that I wanted to engage more with from my class was whether the for you page-less format of Mastodon helps contribute to any type of good/bad effect on information overload, and whether this kind of decentralization affected the argument that the internet is progressing to become an information utopia/dystopia.
I apologize for the long reply, but do you have any thoughts on this?
No worries, I enjoy conversations like this. Though would you mind explaining what you mean by "page-less format of format of Mastodon?"
@JCPhoenix We also learned about information utopias and dystopias, where tools like social media contribute to negative and positive experiences as a result of their vitality in our lives. I also would love to get your thoughts on whether or not a website like Mastodon contributes to either the utopia or dystopia direction that social media is taking society.
I think Mastodon is better since it's not algorithmic. I could create a bubble of negativity (or positivity) if I wanted to on Mastodon, but I'd have to go out there and search for it and then build it, right? It's different from maybe, on Twitter, tweeting something negative, then the algorithm serving me up similar negative content, which I consume, which gives me more, so and so forth.
In addition, I definitely don't spend as much time on Mastodon as I do on, say, Instagram or YouTube, which is serving me content algorithmically. That's probably a positive, too.
Though given that IG and YT are more unidirectional -- content creator serves content to viewer with little in the opposite direction, other than comments -- whereas Twitter and Mastodon are more multidirectional, with conversation happening between people in the threads, that it's more of a "true" communications platform, the lack of the algorithm on Mastodon does make it more difficult to have those spontaneous interactions. Whether that's a good thing or not probably depends on the person. Some people just want to consume content, while others want to participate in the content. I guess that's kinda tangential to your question!
@JCPhoenix Cool! I don't think its tangential at all actually. A large part of social interaction is the fact that the response you get is more often than not dependent on what you wanted going in.
Do you think that finding your own communities and content on Mastodon might be a solution for mitigating the spread of misinformation? Should more platforms consider adopting the same decentralized style?
@JCPhoenix Sure! So on platforms like TikTok and Twitter, they have kind of a homepage which contains content that the algorithms of the platform thinks the user will like. In class, we've been learning about how these types of algorithms can be influenced to provide certain content to do things like keep attention. Mastodon does not have a homepage (also called a "for-you page") I was wondering if it had any affect on how you managed information overload on social media?
I guess I kinda answered this one in my other comment.
Idk, what do you think about all this? What do you think about Mastodon so far?
@JCPhoenix Frankly, when it comes to things like mitigating information overload and being able to choose your own content, I feel like it circumvents a lot of the issues people are having with social media like TikTok or Youtube recommending content that only a small portion of people like.
From what I can tell, it feels a lot more chill and less like you're being overloaded with content and opinions because you can choose what you want to see out oof your own media experience