Social media caught my attention in early 2008. A coworker finally convinced me to create a Twitter account and I had no idea what it was.

Over the years, I found various types of social media useful for different purposes. Learning. Connecting. Sharing. It felt like being connected to the world in a way I never had before.

What changed? #

You probably know about all of the changes that happened with Twitter (X?) and the eventual rise of competitors like Mastodon and Bluesky. Facebook devolved into an insular echo chamber. Instagram became a highlight reel of unattainable lifestyles. Even LinkedIn turned into a place where spamming your connections became the norm!

I’ve gone down so many paths to improve my social media experience:

• Reducing the number of people I follow
• Resetting accounts to start fresh
• Using different platforms to connect with different audiences
• Leaving some platforms entirely (such as Facebook after I was stalked there)

Nothing seemed to help.

Enter Mastodon #

I joined a Mastodon server in 2022 after hearing about it from friends. Mastodon itself was around for a while but I couldn’t figure out how best to use it and engaging with people was difficult. There were lots of conversations like these:

“Hey, I’m on Mastodon. Are you?”

“What’s Mastodon?”

Eventually, I found a server that fit my interests and started following people. The experience was refreshing. No ads. No algorithms pushing content. Just people sharing thoughts, ideas, and their creations.

But then the same problems returned.

Some people are never satisfied #

I joked with coworkers that you can write a Mastodon post saying “dogs are such cute animals” and then get replies like these:

• “Do dogs exist solely for your pleasure?”
• “What do you have against cats?”
• “Why are you promoting speciesism?”
• “Is that fair to say when some people are allergic to dogs?”
• “How dare you post such a shallow comment during a time of global crisis?”

My timeline slowly filled with more and more negativity.

Don’t get me wrong: I enjoy engaging in discussions, even arguments, with other people. That’s how we learn other perspectives and grow. It’s also how we learn to persuade others to our way of thinking.

I eventually landed in a place where I felt like I couldn’t post, couldn’t reply, and couldn’t engage without dealing with more negativity. Social media connected me to so many wonderful people (and some had less wonderful views), but I felt like I was constantly walking on eggshells. It simply wasn’t worth it.

What am I doing now? #

When something isn’t fun anymore, it’s time to move on.

I closed down my Mastodon server that I hosted with mastohost and deleted my account. (The mastohost people are AWESOME and if you ever need a Mastodon server, even one just for yourself and few friends, I highly recommend them.) I’m already feeling better after doing that last weekend!

You’ll still see me writing blogs here, and you can always reach me via the same email address I’ve had for many years. I’m still involved with several communities via Discord and on Fedora’s Matrix instance. Although I don’t log into LinkedIn much, you can send me a message there.