Discussion
I’ve been asked on TV hits and interviews lately to explain why decentralized social media is better, especially re: Mastodon.
How would you explain the benefits of a platform like Mastodon and the fediverse to someone in just a few sentences? How would you make the argument that platforms like Mastodon allow for more free expression than big tech controlled apps?
Would love to hear people’s thoughts! Trying to make my arguments most effective
@taylorlorenz@mastodon.social it is yours. It is noy up to some billionaire that sits on his golden throne to dictate to you what you and your community need.
It's your culture, your morales, your ethics. Not some pedophiles apprentice to tell you how to live.
@taylorlorenz it's easier and safer to talk freely in your house or on the streets that in a random bar or on your work
@taylorlorenz The Fediverse is like the phone network.
No matter which phone provider you use (provider=service like Masto, Pixelfed, Lemmy, Bookwyrm etc.) or no matter which phone plan you have at that provider (plan=the different servers of the service) you can always call anyone. You can always switch providers or plans. And still keep all your contacts. And still call anyone.
@taylorlorenz When friends ask me: the fediverse is not a social media platform but a social network. The functionality and technical setup is comparable to e-mail (servers, addresses, clients) rather than a closed system or singular app.
@taylorlorenz to echo probably lots of folks, I find the email metaphor to work well — I can send anyone email and not just folks on Gmail or whatever — what if social media were more like that?
@taylorlorenz your social networks, your data
@taylorlorenz Mastodon is based a communication technology where social media can be implemented in a more decentralized and independent approach. The approach ensures that no one company can take over the media, or go out of business taking the entirely of the social network with it. The longevity of this approach ensures freedom from singular control, and makes it more like email and less like myspace, vine, twitter, or many others.
@taylorlorenz
Things like Twitter and Facebook are a high stress environment.. you're constantly worried you'll say something to upset someone.
Mastodon is chill. It's rare for anyone to take things you post as a personal insult (and if they do, the block button is really effective).
1. Your company, university, or club can run a Mastodon server for itself, under its full control.
2. No one can tell you which apps to use or what kind of functionality it can have.
3. You don't have to chase friends or influencers from platform to platform. Set up a homebase on the Fediverse and follow them remotely wherever they go.
4. You own your contacts. No algorithm keeps you from seeing them, or them from seeing you.
5. Your server can be hosted in your country.
@taylorlorenz also, this thread is massive. Much ♥️ to our friends at Mastodon who got the replies-fetching working. Such a better conversation experience.
@taylorlorenz
No need for corporate overlords. No one is in charge. It's glorious.
@taylorlorenz
1) The goal of any company is to make money. Baking bread or providing digital platforms are different means of achieveing it. They all have a product and customers. In case of twitter or facebook, the customers are advertisers and the product is time users spend on their platforms. So in order to maximize their profits, they use algorithms, that maximize the users engagement. It doesn't matter if it's more funny cat videos or more fake news and extremist propaganda, whatever gets you engaged, will get amplified. The fediverse does not do that.
@taylorlorenz My main reason is no tech bro can buy it and even if my instance goes bad I can easily relocate to another.
@taylorlorenz “Imagine if all the world’s email, for individuals, companies and governments, was all controlled by just one company; even if the owner of that company wasn’t insane, would that be a good idea? What could go wrong?
And if things did go wrong, would everyone moving to alternative email services run by just a few other big companies, whose systems didn’t talk to each other, solve those problems? Or create new problems?”
Is what we have for email now better? Why?”
@taylorlorenz
The network is built so it can't be controlled by one single entity.
Therefore this entity cannot impose a unique censorship to everyone.
Mastodon is the anti-influence platform
On the social web we are
- free from the influence of megalomaniacs or any one person
- free from the influence of VCs and profit motivations
- free from the influence of algorithmic manipulation
Plus as a bonus, you can follow a friend's "Instagram" from your "Twitter" account ✨
@haubles @taylorlorenz that first one really isn’t true though. The fediverse has harmful parasocial and group dynamics just like every other social space. And the concentration of power in instance admins sure adds to that.
I take your point, but as you say: that’s a people problem not a technology problem. that is true of people wherever they form groups, on and offline. The fediverse is different because unlike other social networking platforms, you can vote with your feet if you find yourself in a social space that doesn’t suit you anymore, by leaving and taking your followers and followings with you.
There’s certainly more we can do as a community (and as the Mastodon org) to make our technology more resilient to toxic human dynamics. One thing we want to do is make it a lot easier for anyone to host a Mastodon instance, so if you can’t find a space that suits you, you can make your own. And we’re working on that this year! Another thing we’re considering (but is not on our roadmap right now) is adding post migration, which will make it a lot easier for people to pick up and leave when a space doesn’t suit them anymore.
We’re not trying to “fix” people here, but we are trying to make technology that is resilient to our worst habits and impulses instead of actively exploiting and compounding them. How do you think we should try to address this?
@haubles it's true that you can move instances when you want, but that's also a very clunky process that puts a lot of people off. and then there's the whole anxiety over losing connections because of how instances are or aren't federating with each other. So I don't think "you can just move" is as simple as people often claim it is.
And it's not just an issue of having to move instances. The relationship people have with their admins can also be a very unhealthy parasocial one.
@haubles I think this is very much a problem caused by the low level design of the fediverse. The way instances work in ActivityPub leads to a few people in powerful positions and that's very much an effect of the technology, not a purely social one.
@aesthr these are good points, and thank you for your feedback! As I said, we definitely want to make account migration and instance hosting better and more accessible. Stay tuned :)
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@taylorlorenz next time you get asked in TV say: "it is like twitter but you all are not there, that is the killer feature"