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
RIP my notifications
@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 Yesss! Just like away!
@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!
@HollieK72 @adastra1930 yes, some people post wayyy too frequently
@adastra1930 I spam likes as if it's a "read" marker lol
@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 Welcome to the fediverse!!
@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 so well put.
@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.
@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?
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
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.