mastodon.social is one of the many independent Mastodon servers you can use to participate in the fediverse.
The original server operated by the Mastodon gGmbH non-profit

Administered by:

Server stats:

366K
active users

Alison Pitt :blobcatcoffee:

My brain is still struggling to unlearn the years of algorithmic social media. I had become fearful of “liking” anything or following anyone, because it would skew my timeline.

Goodness, Mastodon (and the Fediverse in general) is refreshing 😌

@adastra1930
My thing is refusing to "like" any post on mainstream social media that's just a screenshot of somebody else's tweet. I refuse to help a Content Thief game the algorithm to get engagement.
@WeirdWriter

@adastra1930 We're back in Friends of Friends social media here, where engagement makes us visible, rather than algorithms, where investing our time provides ROI. We're back to pre-hashtag social media, where conversations were the engine of social networks.

@harmonicarichard @adastra1930 never thought of it like that, you're right; I wasn't interacting but just reacting with the usual "❤️🤣🔥"

so sad

@adastra1930 It does take a while to unlearn previous social media. I felt similar when I arrived in Nov 2022, and it took a good few months to start to feel comfortable with the dynamics here. However, if you follow someone and it does skew your timeline, you can always unfollow them - no big deal. Took me some time not to feel guilty about that!

@adastra1930 I had the same experience when I first joined.

@adastra1930 that's why mastodon really should be called a social network. It's not treating its users as money making cattle, it's not media that you consume; it's people that you interact with.

@adastra1930 right? "what if I keep seeing this till the end of times" is a thing. Unlearning this trauma takes time haha.

@adastra1930 It certainly is nice herewith no ads, no algorithms directing/dictating what you see.

@adastra1930 I understand you. On top of that, sometimes I see something that reminds me of people's behavior on other socials and it's triggering like having PTSD 😅 I've been over 2 years on fedi and I'm definitely better here 🥰

Edit: I wish you a good experience too

@adastra1930 oooh this thread has pinpointed exactly the feeling I've been having on here lately! Thanks for posting it!

@adastra1930 I often fall into the trap of assuming anything I like will automatically skew my feed to show me more. Got so used to FB and X doing this. Got rid of X two years ago and am slowly weaning myself off FB but thank goodness for Mastodon.

images.fineartamerica.com/imag

@adastra1930 my brain is so broken from social media algorithms that I continue to hide my identity on mastodon 😱. Does anyone in this thread know what protections we have from AI crawling/learning off of mastodon activity?

@Bruticus @adastra1930

From what other people have posted based on their experience, it appears that if your posts are set to public, LLM's are crawling and scraping us here 😡😡

@adastra1930 I came to the Fedi in 2016. Took me months to unlearn those habits.

It's nice that I can fave things without affecting an algorithm

@adastra1930 I really want the 2000s social media platforms back, no ads, no commercialisation, no politics.. Just simple tools to connect and share updates 😞😞

@adastra1930

Also: when you compose a post or reply, then think better of it and delete it instead of posting, it just… goes away instead of being part of a creepy inferential profile the company's robots are constantly building on you.

@adastra1930 this 100%. Also notice the lack of click bait and rage traps here. I feel free.

@adastra1930 I actually didn't realize that's what I'm still doing elsewhere until I read your post.

@adastra1930 It is not merely that your timeline won't be skewed. It is also that nobody is building a profile on you.

@adastra1930 and if you use Lists, you can make multiple timelines 🎉

@adastra1930 There's still a lot of people that migrated to the fediverse that have not unlearned their algorithmic conditioning.
Everytime I see a "my feed is dead" or "where is everyone" posts I look at how many people they follow. It's usually not a lot or more followers than follows. Following and boosting is what makes your feeds come alive. Also create lists so you can keep up.

@adastra1930 it's like playing a game where you can loot all the things and you have unlimited inventory space

@adastra1930 that's kind of the point of all this ain't it?

@adastra1930 same! Isn’t it so nice? You can just like stuff! And share stuff! And no weird shit happens!

@adastra1930 that’s so truuuuue I didn’t even think about this

@adastra1930 welcome, and I had the exact same thing as you describe. Algorithm allergy. I quickly learned that at Mastodon, I can favorite and compliment to my hearts content. Love it.