I have fully transitioned to using Lemmy and Mastodon right when third party apps weren’t allowed on Spez’s place anymore, so I don’t know how it is over there anymore.
What do you use? Are you still switching between the two, essentially dualbooting?
What other social media do you use? How do you feel about Fediverse social media platforms in general?
(I’m sorry if I’m the 100th person to ask this on here…)
In an ever-evolving digital landscape, I am thrilled to immerse myself in the liberating experience of using decentralized platforms like Mastodon, Lemmy, and Pixelfed. Freed from the constraints of centralized social media, I have embarked on a transformative journey. Recognizing the excessive time once consumed by my phone—nearly ten hours a day—I have successfully halved this to around five hours daily, allowing for a healthier balance, with a slight indulgence during weekends.
My commitment to this shift is further evidenced by my conscious decision over the past two years to bid farewell to major platforms such as Twitter and Tumblr. More recently, I have cut ties with Instagram, Facebook, BlueSky, Reddit, and even Snapchat.
In an effort to further champion these alternative platforms and their communities, I am proud to contribute by donating to Mastodon. This initiative not only represents a personal commitment but also an investment in the growth and resilience of decentralized social networks, encouraging more people to explore the boundless opportunities they offer.
This sounds like an apology video written by an AI and thus I am not sure if you’re being sarcastic.
I’m a blog writer, and sometimes I take things a bit too seriously. I am not being sarcastic, nor am I using AI. 😅
Thank you for using clear language with proper spelling and grammar. It is a rare thing to see these days.
I have two modes:
- Grammatically correct
- Tired and Gen Z
Nice blog bro
Thanks ☺️
Had a Facebook account I completely ignored (set it up for my first girlfriend and we exclusively used Yahoo Messenger) then turned into a music dump, then deleted. I honestly never saw the point of Facebook, not with apps like WhatsApp or even standard SMS evolving as they have, even back then (talking about the 2010s).
Had an Instagram account for about 3 months - surprisingly decent source of grotesque/morbid art! Again, saw no point in this, and Reddit felt superior in all ways.
Mainlined Reddit for a good couple of years, mostly during the Pandemic. By the time I got into it, one could feel its bulk, so to speak. Sure 99.7% of Reddit were the users, but even so, it felt as though subreddit quirks and in-jokes had ossiffied into tennets by that point. Loved it, but it felt constraining here and there.
Switched to Lemmy a couple of months after deleting my Reddit account when shit went down, and it’s all I’ve been using and plan on using. Unless one counts news aggregators as social platforms.
I love this scroungy, spit-and-duct tape feel of the fediverse, to be very honest. Feels like the days when we used to group chat on local network sharing apps, like it’s just the neighbourhood kids around. And it seems to not be dissipating even with the huge increase in users, which is a good sign. Plus the obvious lack of curation other than baseline moderation and/or personal grudges is always nice!
I see it the exact same way!
The way that the fediverse is split up like this, with many instance working with different rulesets really does make it feel like some neighbourhood people coming together to chat.
I especially like the way how, why you chose an instance, you can either stay within the bounds of your own local group, or interact with all the people by switching over to the “subscribed” tab (at least this is the case here on blahaj zone).
Yes, that’s my favourite aspect about it, the interactivity between the various instances and how distinctly unique each instance seems to have become in terms of ethos. It’s wonderful to see so many different ‘tribes’ and be able to interact with all of them!
It is for me, I use an account on Lemmy.ml for general browsing (and correcting misconceptions about Marxism, if I’m being honest), and a Hexbear.net account I pretty much only browse locally if I just want to relax and not have to worry about getting into an argument.
Yes. For over a year, from Reddit. Although I like Bluesky more than I expected. Also Discuit is awesome.
Similar situation. I quickly glance between Lemmy and Mastodon and only use
old.reddit when I’m on my PC(just realised I hadn’t really used it since I’ve been making an effort to engage with the manga communities on lemmy) . All my friends and favourite artists seem to use Instagram so I only use it out of necessity for messaging and quick inspirations (I tried using Cara but I found the app somewhat slow and disliked that it wasn’t federated, so I could see it having a very low lifespan. I saw it as a poor move for artists to move to it solely on the promise of being “anti-AI” without any redundancies that a de-federated option would have)Lemmy is now. Followed by reddit, which I visit less and less. And no it doesn’t feel like dual booting, there seem to be so many of the same people here, with the same issues and anger. But I prefer the lemmy UI and absense of ads. The lack of a personal karma total might be keeping at least some of them away.
Same for me. Mostly using Lemmy and Mastodon since they’re filling two different roles. I also reluctantly still use Instagram since all my friends are on it.
Some people seem to see it as a negative that Mastodon with its linear feed doesn’t get them nearly as addicted as corporate social media but for me that’s a huge plus.
Same! The “lack of content” is really refreshing somehow.
Not having some proprietary algorithm spoon-feed you content is very nice. It literally only shows you exactly what you tell it to.
Lemmy is the only one I’ll log onto and the only one I have as an app.
Sometimes though, I’ll miss a super specific community from the place spez ruined, and scroll through it in DuckDuckGo browser.
Anything that has an intransparent, engagement driving, ad laden algorithm that determines what you do and don’t see is thoroughly unappealing to me. At least now that I’m a little more tech savvy and anti-corporate.
I guess I do technically have a Facebook account still because I don’t remember the password of either that account or the associated email address. I used that for local flea market and food sharing groups up until maybe 6 years ago.
It feels super weird having used Lemmy for a while, and to then come back to something like Youtube, which does have it’s proprietary algorithm thingy. So weird seeing content I didn’t explicitely agree to seeing.
Facebook appears to be a common ground for many replies on this post, which I find very interesting.
Ikr? I have to use YouTube a specific way. I’ll go to a channel and go to the tab that just lists the videos chronologically. I’ll go back there if I want a second video. The only way I find new creators I enjoy watching is through recommendation/someone sending a link to a group chat. Shame really, I bet there’s plenty of content out there that I’d enjoy, but I can’t handle the algorithm.
I think the Facebook thing is because it was more or less the first social media that pretty much everyone was on. Everything before was a little more niche. But back in, like, 2010, it felt like you were missing out if you weren’t on FB. At least that’s my experience/guess (I’m 27 and in middle Europe).
I think Facebook had an advantage in originally being targeted at college kids (I think you even needed a school ID to make an account originally) before becoming open to everyone. This meant that the userbase was a little older than that of most social media at the time and it worked as a way to stay in touch with people after you graduated. Then, when they opened it up, it became a way to stay in touch with family as well, which got the parents onboard with something that they had just considered a fad before, like MySpace.
Anything that has an intransparent, engagement driving, ad laden algorithm that determines what you do and don’t see is thoroughly unappealing to me. At least now that I’m a little more tech savvy and anti-corporate.
Hear hear. Under the guise of Engagement, corporations have weaponized algorithms to maximize the time you spend on their platforms, and it’s absolutely been a race to the bottom, prioritizing Outrage above all else. Hard pass, thanks.
Corporate goals don’t align with that of users like they used to.
Ironically, I like when I eventually scroll to the end of the Lemmy posts and my app tells me “you have reached the bottom”.
hey, I know this funi! I’ve seen this guy on 196 before!
yeah i basically only use lemmy and watch youtube videos, or i pirate media, play games with friends, or do stupid stuff with my computer that i shouldnt be allowed to do
Ok that is fair. I commented on someone elses comment here that they should try out PeerTube, as that is a decentralized option with all the benefits of the fediverse.
it does have the deficit of not having anybody i regularly watch on there, although i would love that to change
Lemmy and Mastodon
I have deleted my accounts on Reddit, Twittet and Facebook.
How do you use Mastodon?
I have tried to engage with it more multiple times, but I tend to not get anywhere. Is it like instagram, where you gotta subscribe to some hashtags?
Yeah, you subscribe to hashtags to start, find people you agree with/find interesting, follow them, and then as they boost stuff you’ll find more and more people to follow.
Is there an app? I use Voyager and Sync for Lemmy.
I use an app called Moshidon, it’s a fork of (a fork of) the official app, it’s quite nice
You can start with the official Mastodon app, but there are numerous alternatives.
Almost the same way I used to use Twitter innthe early days:
- Find a client that I’m comfortable with (IceCubes for me)
- follow people that post interesting stuff
- engage in conversations
Works really well for me and even though I only have half the amount of followers I had on Twitter, I have more high quality conversations and less trolls.
lemmy is my first and only social account (unless you consider software forums or gitlab lol) Matrix too but not using that in a social media way, only as a direct messenger.
Started on lemmy today after reddit perma banned my 14 year old account for breaking the first rule of reddit. I may have told some to kill themselves. I’m definitely in the wrong but I don’t care I’m taking the ban personally and never using it again.
They banned me for giving my opinion on how child molesters should be punished and then permabanned me for doing it again when I got back. Funny thing is people say the exact same kind of shit about all kinds of other people and those comments are fine… weird how they only care to protect people who molest children.
I lost my 10+ yr old account because I got auto banned from a mess of subs for leaving a comment on an anti vax sub CRITICAL of them. You have to love lazy mods who ban without any consideration of context. Now I just glance at the posts and comments and avoid the urge to participate.
Yeah, pretty much. This and Discord really. Signal for P2P messaging.
I went full Lemmy for a while but have to admit I’m reading reddit again, but without their dumb app. Just the web browser.
Looking through a few subreddits, see what’s new for five minutes. I don’t post anymore, don’t have an account.
I don’t post anymore, don’t have an account.
Yap, I nuked it too
