 On the "All Hands on Tech" podcast, Mat Pancha did a review of Mastodon. It's seems like he's not a big fan. Specifically, he doesn't like that Mastodon isn't conducive to passive zoning out. He wants a service you can use without thinking. However, to me, the appeal of Mastodon (and the Fediverse) is that this is social media that requires you to turn on your brain. Mastodon is a bicycle for your brain. 54 comments
@atomicpoet Twitter was a shitter from the beginning. 140 character limit? It was always going to devolve into "who can shout the loudest" Once you go down the "passive consumption" route, social media stops being social. Instead it becomes television. And television sucks. It's a one way window where a talking head speaks to you -- but you can't speak back. Why would anyone want this -- and pretend this is in any way "social"? "Social" implies a two way conversation. If it's one way, the "social" is a facade. @olavf Again, no service has to be all things to all people. If someone wants to created a federated service for viewing cat photos, just make caturday.social. Make it gallery-focused. Obviously, that's not what I want. But that's fine.  @atomicpoet @olavf  @atomicpoet absolutely right!  @atomicpoet ,That's an interesting way to put it. Social media are now like TV. (Think about "doom scrolling.") The fediverse is a social *network.* @atomicpoet I posit that ‘passive consumption’ is what turned Social Networking into Social Media. The intentionality of using Mastodon = Social Networking. @atomicpoet That is the difference between a “social network” @atomicpoet Also nice find. It helps me feel nerdly superior that this is the thinker's social media.   @atomicpoet People like to have everything "as a service". They like to watch celebrity marriage, sport games, talk shows, porn, influencers and so on. Rather than acting/thinking autonomous. The world shown by professional actors seems to be more comfortable as so I can make no mistake myself. @atomicpoet You nailed there and square. We come here to engage with people, have conversations, test ideas, search for different views... not to 'consume media'... 'without thinking'... I think there is plenty of that everywhere else. Moreover, I love the fact that here we can really talk to the people 'running the thing'... not only 'their users'... Anyway, nothing is everything to everyone. "I'm here to talk to people, have a conversation, and test out new ideas that could change the world." YES...! I'm here to do that too - I only got into Social Media BECAUSE of an observation that 'could change the world'. So Mastodon is BETTER for that than Twitter, right...? Well, not in my experience; there's no publishing algorithm here, so (presumably, because no stats either...) nobody sees my stuff without a 'boost'. And 'my stuff' gets more CRICKETS than BOOSTS... @atomicpoet @zleap being silent is torture for me. I was in a treatment center as a teen where they didn’t let me talk for 10 days and it was pure hell.  @atomicpoet I curated the hell out of who I followed, and who I let follow me. My Twitter feed was primarily conversations & really similar to what I experience here. I didn’t follow huge accounts to have them spout things at me. I talked about things with the people that followed me & that I followed. My Twitter feed was just as full of science & art & poetry & photography & politics as this is. A lot Twitter was actually what you made of it I think it’s why this is a good fit @atomicpoet Thinking about this further, I'm wondering if builders of the fediverse shouldn't take some lessons from biology. Think about the fediverse as an entity. So it will need to live with invaders (get sick) but also have several immune systems that engage at various levels.  @atomicpoet @fediversenews The article has weird formatting. And yeah, Mastodon is not for him. Yet. I'm okay with that.  @atomicpoet @fediversenews sounds like he’s talking about the Mastodon app, not the network.  @atomicpoet @fediversenews I think saying you want to use something without thinking is brave. It is speaking the quiet part out loud: that we consume to numb ourselves, because simply* being in the here and now has become too uncomfortable, if not painful. *) it is not, in fact, simple.  That critique doesn't even hold true imo. One can perfectly 'zone out' on Mastodon. But you'll have to put in some work beforehand. Once you got lists of accounts and hash tags to follow assembled, maybe found servers with interesting timelines, you can definitely restrict yourself to a mere 'consumer' role. Consuming Mastodon on a tablet works a lot better than the web app though. However, if picking from a restaurant menu stresses someone out, then it's 'fast food for life' for them, I guess. @atomicpoet What, specifically, is "social" about "zoning out", anyway? Give me engagement, interaction, a chance to learn something.  @atomicpoet Interesting. Exactly that is a reason I dislike feeds created by intransparent algorithms. @atomicpoet @fediversenews first off: weird desire from a social networking service. Second: I use mastodon casually a lot, but i *prefer* to use it when i have a rather clear head because im going to be interacting with real humans, not commodities or bots that wont be affected by my interactions. @atomicpoet @fediversenews I also don't really get this criticism of the metaverse in general. All one has to do is follow a handful of hashtags and there's more than enough content there too scroll through. I guess it's not an endless hellhole of neverending algorithmic content overload, if that's what he's looking for. @atomicpoet @fediversenews pretty bold of them to admit that they are pretty much brain dead when it comes to their internet consumption https://t.me/adriana_roberta_trade click on this link if you are ready to make up to 10k-50k passive income in just a week @atomicpoet @fediversenews Now you know why some people only buy iPhones and others only buy Samsung phones. @atomicpoet @fediversenews his argument feels a little lost on me though - after you’ve signed up, you can click the app on your phone, and start scrolling and reading - if that requires too much thought, I feel like that’s a him problem and not a mastodon problem.  I keep saying this. We have to talk about our goals and design appropriately. If you want to zone out etc or probably a dozen other things, somebody else can give you an app for that. But what the medium of "decentralized boosting with comments" does great is democratize attention. Let everyone decide collectively what art, info and ideas go viral. Nobody gets to gatekeep or buy eyeballs. Cultural evolution on steroids. It's designed for the journalistic impulse. @atomicpoet @fediversenews Dear #Fediverse, save this: "Mastodon is a bicycle for your brain" (Chris Trottier/ @atomicpoet, 2023)  @atomicpoet @fediversenews  @atomicpoet @fediversenews Also, flat disagree, having the iOS Mastodon apps like @IceCubesApp, and having waited to pick up the grandson. @atomicpoet @fediversenews well, that was an underwhelming way of saying he's an idiot who likes simple things. @atomicpoet @fediversenews So, we’re expected to choose a social network based on the same criteria Mat’s partner chose Mat. Got it.  @atomicpoet @fediversenews so tired of alleged journalists and others sharing their stories shitting on Mastodon then discovering that they were only on it for a few weeks and only followed a few people. Classic “I didn’t understand it so it must be bad” energy > He wants a service you can use without thinking Sorry man, but you quite incorrect...I do glad that you wrote a huge explanation on this quote, but there's only one problem: you quoted it without context. He wants a service that easy to use at daily activities. At any activities. Like enjoy it, you know. And the fact is that he is correct at saying so. And you're correct too, you just took his review without context and that's it! @atomicpoet @fediversenews Unless he thinks the same of twitter, I think he is talking about the user experience, probably with the official app. The recommendation of a third party app by default is a hurdle hard to overcome, I suppose. @atomicpoet @fediversenews Mindless and engageless scrolling is exactly why social media is associated with mental health declines. Wanting let alone using something of that caliber simply is not healthy. @atomicpoet This sounds suspiciously like an updated iteration of "actually, everybody loves ads, as long as they're relevant to your needs" VC AstroTurfing. @atomicpoet @fediversenews I’m convinced that social media has made us more stupid, less critical, meaner, and devoid of critical thinking.  @atomicpoet @fediversenews Word. What I love about Mastodon is that it gives me back the same kind of active engagement I enjoyed on LiveJournal but is smaller, more digestible units. @atomicpoet @fediversenews I didn't know it was possible to not think. How does one do that? I'm always thinking about something. Usually it's many somethings. |
Gregory's Server
For me, Twitter became "enshittified" when the service became about passive consumption.
And I get it. Some people just want to turn off their brains and zone out.
But not me.
I'm here to talk to people, have a conversation, and test out new ideas that could change the world.