In the last few years, my patience for social media has been waning.  I do like to keep in touch with people up to a point but the constant onslaught of targeted advertising, the monitoring of every click, and the algorithm deciding what I’m going to see next has taken it’s toll.  I’ve discovered that I don’t really like being “the product” and I don’t need someone telling me what I should see next.

Doing something different is a significant mental shift in this revenue-driven world that too few are ready to take.  I recognize that some people do in fact like being told what to do, how to do it, and when to do it [I’m an Apple consumer after all] and that’s okay, I’m not judging.  Corporate social media just isn’t for me any more.

I’ve already been spending less and less time on social media.  I joke that I spend about 90 seconds at a time on Facebook or Instagram – an exaggeration but likely not too far off.  I’m sure Facebook and Instagram can tell you exactly how long I spend on each.  The real social media decline for me began with the downfall and meltdown of Twitter.

Twitter was my social media vice of choice.  I was able to tailor a feed, time based, that would show me what was going on in the world in specific topic areas of interest.  Most often it was keeping up with tech news but, if there was a crisis somewhere in the world, I would go to Twitter to get the real story.  I was in the Washington Navy Yard in 2013 when a mass shooting occurred and, even being at the scene of the event, Twitter was my best source of information about what was going on and provided a quick outlet to let people know I was okay.

But, Twitter did indeed fall, and is continuing to fall, in grand fashion.  I don’t know if much there is considered trustworthy anymore.  I canceled both of my accounts a while ago and started looking for my new social media “thing.”  I already had accounts on Facebook and Instagram; I likely see more family there than anywhere else, but there are just so many ads.  I tried Pinterest, but quickly lost interest [sic].  Reddit was not bad until they got greedy and became the next AI sellout.

All this ultimately combined to initiate my personal exploration of what has today become known as the “Fediverse.”  Interestingly enough, the concept is really not that new.  Way back in the early days of computer networking, I ran a computer Bulletin Board System or BBS on FidoNET – essentially a bunch of computer systems exchanging data via “store and forward” over phone lines to share messages around the world.

There were multiple applications that could speak to one another to electronically exchange and route data to the intended location and there were multiple user facing applications that could be used to consume the information delivered.  Basically, options and choices…

I appreciate the open source movement continuing to push back against a limited pool of commercial software options and seemingly endless corporate profits. I’m not specifically against commercial software but what get’s lost is that many corporations take advantage of open source code in their end products without any thought of the hours invested by programmers. There are open source counterparts for Microsoft Office, Adobe Photoshop, and many other commercial products.

Within the Fediverse, I appreciate having the option to pick a program of my own preference to do instant messaging; share thoughts, articles, or headlines; and share photos or videos without being beholden to an algorithm or submitting to the monitoring of my every action.  The real catch is that big corporate entities don’t want to play, they would rather lock you inside their walls and harvest your data. You will not be able to communicate with people inside the walled garden.

After a lot of personal reflection and analysis, I’ve decided that I’m going to primarily use the following for my social media presence:

Instant Messaging: XMPP (aka Jabber) using Snikket and Beagle IM.  I already host my own server (at snikket.org) and I can communicate with anyone else in the world using XMPP without any corporate involvement.

Microblogging: Mastodon using Ivory.  I host my own Mastodon server at Masto.host and, again, I can follow anyone in the world on the Fediverse with my personally hosted account.

Photo and Video Sharing: Pixelfed using Ivory.  I host my own Pixelfed server at K&T Host.  I can choose to follow people using either the Mastodon or Pixelfed web interfaces – it’s the same federated network of systems.  There are desktop or phone clients that will connect to both as well. I like having the option of choosing to follow on either platform based upon whether my focus is on words or pictures.

There have likely been thousands of articles written about the fall of Twitter, social media addiction driven by “likes” and the algorithm, the rise of generative AI, and the challenges of the Fediverse but for me, the Fediverse is where I would rather be.

I fully agree, it’s not as simple as just logging into Facebook or Instagram and having new people recommended to you.  It takes a little more work to find the people you want to follow; tags matter a lot. I really like the freedom of being able to do it myself.

For friends and family, you may not see me on corporate social media as often, but I’m still around.  If you want to know more about the Fediverse, I’m more than willing to help…

Fediverse image provided by logowik.com.