@DrLindseyFitzharris I know people are seeing this as a Twitter replacement, and to be fair I think we all do - a bit, to start with.

Might be worth everyone reading the very obvious https://mastodon.help/ to get a feel for why it's social media as it should be.

It's not a copy of something commerical that preys on your emotional connections to reduce & sell that interaction for profit.

Technically it's a bit like email so there may be spam but its controllable by each and all of us.

@DrLindseyFitzharris

Great read. I get why it might feel intrusive. A sign of its success.

The ability to filter & be more selective than the birdsite means you can keep the content select.

A decentralised model means one person can't control the whole thing.

That has to be good?

As a birdsite user since 2007 I'll do my best to make sure my mastodon feed doesn't get toxic, because that's the reason I've joined i.e. to not get sucked in so easily.

I gave up FB for the same reason

@DrLindseyFitzharris to be fair, these are common complaints for every social media system. The Eternal September is chaos and, for the optimistic, opportunity.

The perception of switch costs between Twitter and Mastodon changed after the Musk takeover, and suddenly folks had time to try out something new.

@DrLindseyFitzharris great article about what happens when people start using that thing you want them to use.

The subway example is classic.

On the bright side they knew it (mass transit) was an option vs. driving drunk — and used it.

@Gargron posts about the exciting growth make me think he’s happy we know about it — and are using it.

I’m hopeful the bad actors stay with their new found god and leave us willing to work within the @Mastodon ecosystem alone.

@DrLindseyFitzharris It’s really interesting; I’m bouncing back & forth between MASTO & birdsite, & I realize that birdsite gives me an INSTANT HIT of adrenaline, whereas MASTO requires my time, patience & attention.

MASTO is certainly a healthier place & I will ween myself off the adrenaline hit of the birdsite eventually! I catch myself thinking, before I click that tab, “Do I really want to feel angry?”