Life moves pretty fast.
In the words of Ferris Bueller, “Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.”
If you’re on The Twitter, life is moving VERY fast ever since the takeover and massive overhaul by Elon Musk. There is an exodus happening as Musk makes it clear that a lot of things that make Twitter tolerable will change; the moderation (as overwhelmed as it was), verified and trusted users (as toxic as it all could be), and its reach into every facet of our world and lives.
I’ve verified my account apparently…
It’s that easy, it’s as easy adding a link back in my Menu to Mastodon with some custom code inside. No $8/mo fee either.
What is happening? Twitter is changing and people are leaving.
This is kind of ironic considering the letter I just wrote to my own local newspaper urging people to leave Facebook for the betterment of our little town and society in general.
Now the exodus that I thought might happen at some point in the last few years at Facebook (it is, slowly), is happening on my current social media haunt. And it seems to be happening at lightning speed as Musk announces and does a lot of stuff that scares away both regular and corporate users.
Where are people going? (hint: it’s not Facebook) Counter.Social is one, but far more at least in my circle, are headed to the Mastodon network. Here is the latest this morning from the Mastodon Users account:
Mastodon isn’t a single space like Facebook and Twitter and the other big spaces. It’s a network, much like the Internet of old, people can create their own Mastodon space either only for themselves, or for a small group, or big regional or national space. It is mostly volunteer run and volunteer moderated.
All these Mastodon services can communicate in a “Federation” so that no matter where you are, you can see the larger world and they can see you. IF you, and they, want. It’s worth noting that Trumps “Truth.social” is a Mastodon network. It’s not in the larger “federation”, it is blocked by most and you can block individuals and entire servers as well. So it is always *your* space.
Right now, Mastodon is feeling very very organic. There is no algorithm. You have to find the people and spaces that you want to see.
It’s pretty exciting and fun right now. If you’d like you can find me at Mastodon Canada there I am.
I haven’t left Twitter. It will take a while for all of the information sources to pick a new space if Twitter is indeed headed to its demise, but I think it is still more likely right now that Twitter will continue in some form. Will Elon Musk last? That might be a more immediate question.
Whether Mastodon, with its throw-back feel of connection, combined with easy interface and good privacy/moderation will be the new Twitter remains to be seen. It’s early days, but it’s moving fast, so you might want to slow yourself down.
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