Big Tech Wants You Trapped. The Open Web Sets You Free
Big Tech Wants You Trapped. The Open Web Sets You Free
Big Tech designed their platforms to keep you trapped. YouTube, X, Instagram, and TikTok aren't neutral spaces. They're businesses built on capturing your attention and data. Their algorithms, notification systems, and content policies all serve one purpose: keeping you engaged on their terms. And ...
Just being here has felt freeing in and of itself. No ads omg. It's beautiful. I like the slower pace here too, it doesn't bother me to see the same post on the main page from a few days ago. I think it's a nice break for my senses actually.
Less bots, more genuine conversations, it’s also not as fast-paced as other social medias.
It’s great. It feels like a forum from back in late 2000s / early 2010 and I like it
I've gone all-in on (properly) federated social media and I've got to say it's been a great experience. After what's happened to Twitter, with Zuck's recently stated plans for Meta, and TikTok's immediate Trump cocksucking, I realized that all privately-owned platforms are as good as compromised, no matter the utility they otherwise provide.
Instagram was more difficult as it was how I found out about a lot of local events, and was my primary connection to a lot of old friends, but it was worth it. I actually reach out and talk to those friends who I previously just followed. It's restored some actually connection that social media had stripped away, and I find myself avoiding the endless scroll I used to get caught in.
I'm still working on evacuating YouTube, but using RSS feeds to be more deliberate about whose uploads I'm notified about has helped a ton.
anyone got tips for finding quality memes on mastodon? i love the philosophy of the service, but i have 0 interest in reading political takes from strangers all day, and right now it feels like all i see on the “trending” page is people complaining about politics. i just want to escape the bad news and laugh a little, not get mad at my phone anytime i open the app
maybe have a extra mastodon account where you just follow positive things and radically filter out negative stuff (even with word based filters)
and then i can just recommend:
- be patient. The awesome people will be found over time.
- lemmy communities are also great, but i dont remeber the names. But different instances have some funny meme communities.
- search hashtags
- in general explore stuff.
The selfhosting movement sets people free in general.
Does selfhosting movement include using non-commercial instances of apps like mastodon/lemmy/matrix etc?
John Mastodon.
I tried Bluesky for while but honestly I like Mastadon and Lemmy better. I'm also testing LOOPS (tiktok replacement) which is from the same creator as Pixelfed. There's something comforting using decentralized platforms that are safe from Government and Corporate intervention
I like that it feels more like the web when I was younger, smaller communities usually with a more specific topic, run by a person or small group.
What's your impression of loops so far?
I've been underwhelmed, but I don't know if that's a platform issue or an adoption issue. Found a couple good accounts to follow, but I really want a block option to keep some accounts out of my "for you"Content wise it’s underwhelming but it’s random videos. There’s more variety than Pixelfed which has an even smaller community. Eventually more trends will catch on to Lopps but I hope there’s more original content once it’s out of beta and public
will be hard without some algorithm. tiktok is useful for finding content that align with my interests
LOOPS
Where can I DL and try it?
https://loops.video/ You can download the Android APK or Download TestFlight for iOS to use it. You have to sign up first
If only we had more content not related to "look we're free!", "look Linux is freedom", "free free free!", "MAGA bad, but we're independent and free!", it would be even more awesome (not a pun to your side, just a piece of frustration)
Also, for those saying "create it yourself" - I do
keeping you engaged on their terms. And their terms alone. There's no freedom
So keeping you engaged on seemingly your own terms is acceptable and possible?
Such articles just make me think of Bluesky with boredom and suspicion.
The real free web is the non-existent luddite web. It should solve problems platforms solve now, but with minimal engagement possible, ideally look for a second, push a button and leave for a walk. A platform is not interested in minimizing engagement, so it should be a system where paid work necessary for its operation doesn't allow one to become a platform.
I like talking about that, and even tried to push myself (executive dysfunction is a bitch) to try to start a little toy project of something like small web (meaning objects with basic hypertext pages with links to other objects ; with current state of an object being a result of many crud-like messages, and which are considered and which are not would be determined by signatures and chain of trust, meaning that two people with different political views could have very different versions of the same forum and both be happy ; such messages and not resulting objects would be what's stored and replicated, like something between Usenet and a version control system). But then realized I don't really want to do that, just to talk about that, and that's more complex than it reads. Maybe eventually, when I'm twice older.
I hope more active users move to the fediverse. That way we will have a lot of variety in content and can also potentially prevent communities from becoming echo chambers. I suppose moderation will also have to be taken up a notch for these changes to actually have a positive effect.
I hear echo chamber brought up a lot but never really have seen examples of a place that doesn't have an echo chamber.
I think that's just the natural result of people forming communities as opposed seeking out battle grounds for adversaries.
Only thing that can be done is offering people the tools to freely form as many communities as they want with the main barrier being who feels compelled to join the new echo chamber community.
Also, more active users means more niche communities. I just realized there’s a Severance community that is medium active. One less thing I need Reddit for.
prevent communities from becoming echo chambers
I suspect this will still become a problem since we can subscribe to whichever communities we like and vice versa.
It is a feature, not a problem.
I have, like, this whole rich life offline. My curated list of instances and communities (plus my user block list) is just my entertainment and a small portion of my day.
You may not believe this but I have numerous thoughts, activities and interactions that never leave a trace online. I have no obligation to drink from the firehose that is being pumped from the septic tank of the human psyche.
@Flagstaff @gunpachi I'm not sure echo chambers are inherently a bad thing. My real life is a carefully crafted echo chamber of people I like to spend time with (which conveniently includes my family). The problem comes when we get *all* our information from that echo chamber.
Why moderation? The old internet didn't have moderation. Why does everyone feel the need for moderation?
Guess you never used forums.
The old internet was hidden behind dial-up modems and TCP-IP stacks and weird telnet and usenet protocols. This complexity worked as a filter and the people using it were mostly academics, students, techies and other nerds (me amongst them). The moment uncle Bob could poke his way through social media on his phone from the shitter, the whole thing cascaded into Eternal September and "the old internet" was lost forever.
I don't know what old internet you used, but the IRC channels and forums I used to run around on definitely had moderation. This was about '97. Maybe you're talking about the late 80s when barely anybody knew the Internet even existed and it was just academics and ubernerds?
Trolls, bots, and scammers make them necessary at a minimum, and then the subliminal messaging from the cronies of politicians, etc. make them welcome. Bots are easier to make than ever before so you can't compare the past with the present that easily. kbin.social died last year because of relentless spam bots posting garbage/malware links 100x/sec.
What? The old internet absolutely had moderation, even back in the day of BBS.
I remember reading a book that talked about public spaces and how we often think of malls as public spaces, but they have so many restrictions and ulterior motives that it doesn't really hold.
They're essentially the irl equivalent of centralised social media platforms. I hope once the fediverse really takes off, we can have 'official' platforms/instances that are run by governments that federate only to other 'official' ones. That seems like a better way to reach people, instead of Xitter.
It is incredibly frustrating to see for example Ursula Von der Leyen preaching "EU STRONG" stuff on fucking shitter. Really? This is your way of showing how strong the EU is and we shouldn't or can't rely on USA? By posting your I'm strong message on the precise platform the US chief nazification officer owns? FFS.
If all EU governments together decide to ditch shitter and move to mastodon instances, media follows. It's a pretty cheap measure to implement, too.
EU really should ban Twitter. US social media has turned out to be incredibly dangerous with algorithm manipulation with the best evidence being the US and their election and people.
It makes sense if you are helping Russia or are in on isolating the USA. These parties are being funded by these billionaires in Europe. So I mean, eu strong is likely just a front.
Hard agree! I do think fediverse platforms are perfect for public entities to disseminate information.
I’m US based so my example is say a county. They already have the IT infrastructure and staff. Make an instance for the county and a community for each department.
The road department can post road closures and upcoming traffic diversions. The parks department can promote events, etc.
These type of instances can just disable comments. They are read-only so moderation is not needed.
It’s trivial from a resource perspective and even easier than updating a website.
Any great app on Android for mastodon?
I use fedilab, in part because it's the best app for peertube that I've found. But it's got great support for Mastodon and Pixelfed as well.
I've been using Moshidon. One day I'll find an app as good as Ivory on iOS, but in the meantime Moshidon is fine.
I'll second moshidon. It gets bonus points for letting you see your followed hashtags. Or something like that. There's something with hashtags that you can't do in the web browser that you can do with apps. Moshidon does that thing.
I use Tusky and am satisfied, maybe there are better apps idk
Preach!