Just joined Mastodon and don't know where to start?

On the web:
Your home section is your timeline for who you follow, in chronological order.

Your local section is the timeline of toots/posts for everyone on your instance that has listed their post as `public`.

Your federated section is similar to your local section but will show toots/posts from other instances as well

A good starting point would be to make an #Introduction and to look for people posting on it for people you find interesting.

If, you are on a topic-based instance, the local section is a good place to start.

Following your instance isn't required but may be a good place to start (this is @mkevenaar and @Ludoviko for masto.nu)