Into the Fediverse

| 2 minute read

Although the real-time collapse of Twitter and now seemingly Reddit as well has sent shockwaves throughout the social media landscape and the internet as a whole, in a way it’s been an enlightening experience for myself.

The sale of Twitter and it’s subsequent pandering towards extremists is what pushed me to Mastodon in the first place. Although I initially wanted to find an alternative to what I had, I instead found something much better - a closer-knit community of people with genuine attitudes and more organic and thoughtful discussion of the topics I was interested in. Even though by nature Mastodon, and the Fediverse as a whole, is scattered and distributed by design, the collective community felt much closer than anything I had ever found on Twitter.

I went through the same eye-opening experience when I moved from Reddit to Lemmy. Although I sought something similar to replace the hole left behind by my favorite subreddits, I found communities that seemed much more engaging and informed.

Now as I ponder going through the same process once again with moving from Instagram to Pixelfed, I hope that I once again can find a new social community that is not only engaging, but even enthusiastic to be here. In some ways it’s like reliving the earlier days of the internet, when it was more tech-oriented (i.e. nerdy) folks who had a genuine love of the platform as much as the topic itself. I hope that I can once again find that same enthusiasm as I did back then, and as I have now with the Fediverse.