Mastadon seems legitimately ethical. But every good deed comes with a punishment.

Mastadon is like if Disquus and Old Twitter had a baby. It’s not one website–it’s a decentralized network of sites. But it has the feel of social media that people have come to expect. It feels very much like old’n days Twitter –hashtag games and fun and a chronological scroll, with no weird algorithms that must be fed. No ads. No tracking. The scroll is not endless–each server only has so many members. It’s kind of a decentralized miracle.

Except one thing: there is no engagement. At all. You find each other mostly with hashtags (I missed that wholesome hashtag time of life!).

But for some reason nobody interacts.

The hashtag game yesterday was #ContradictASongLyric . So I set to work, hoping this could be the way I find to participate in the world now, while simultaneously fighting against it.

I decided to go big or go home

Do I suck? Let’s look at other people doing the game.

So, anyway. I guess I’m on Mastadon now. It seems to affect literally nothing, at all. And is therefore harmless. Just a place to share ideas. Not get popular. Not destroy anything. Is it good for business? No. But it might be good for remembering that popularity is a trap that will lead you to ruin.

10/10 for creating a true void to scream into. It is an honest void –it doesn’t dangle your hopes and ambitions and fears and dreads to push you this way and that. It promises you nothing but a space to speak. Like a message in a bottle. Or a zine.

It is surprisingly human and real. And small. And manageable.

For anyone wanting to abandon the internet but who cannot bring themselves to truly abandon it, or must use it by mandate, or who still holds out hope that the internet can be a place of reflection and truth…I would recommend it. As a place to jack up your dopamine, it fails miserably. I recommend pairing it with Mary-Jane.

https://mstdn.social/@smutmag

(I should also note, it took me far too long to figure out how to share my handle and I’m still not sure I did it right.)

Addendum:

How is it possible George Takei can post something 15 minutes ago, and nobody could spare 1 bit of engagement? I have to admit, I’m not sure I understand this. Why do people not interact, here? It’s strange…

I like a little strange. But it’s…fucking weird. Where is the social part? Are people deliberately not engaging? Is it just my server?

I don’t know. I guess we’ll figure it out!