Yesterday I talked about "pains" (not "use cases). For me, Big Social created pain. What was it?
1. The destruction of "organic" social
2. Inability to talk about what I want without being knee-capped by their relevancy algorithms
3. The push to create content that relevancy algorithms want, not what I want
4. Banning of accounts for unknown and unclear reasons
5. Trolls harassing me during a traumatic experience, their harassment being rewarded by relevancy algorithms
Most of my pain on Big Social has to do with relevancy algorithms. I have other pains, but this one is critical to me.
Basically, I just want to express myself. I want to express myself knowing that whatever I say gets a decent chance of being seen.
Now I don't think I'm owed an audience. However, I also want a fair shot—without having to impress an algorithm.
My biggest frustration with Big Social was the sense that eventually, I wasn't writing to express myself, nor was I writing to talk to people.
I was writing to impress an algorithm.
I didn't intend on impressing an algorithm. I never wanted to do that. But unconsciously, that happened as I continued to use Big Social.
The Fediverse alleviates my pain by virtue of having no relevancy algorithms.
Many times, I write stuff that nobody cares about. I'm fine with no one caring.
Why? Because that stuff nobody cares about has rightfully *earned* its lack of attention.
You know that dopamine shot people get when someone likes their posts?
The Fediverse gives me a dopamine shot when no one likes a post.
Big Social can't give me the dopamine shot of 0 likes because I know lack of interest isn't earned.
But I earn my 0 likes on the Fediverse—fair and square!
Last week, I bragged that a photo uploaded to Pixelfed had 0 likes.
A recent Twitter migrant was like, "I don't get it!"
It dawned on me—this achievement can't be explained until you experience a total lack of relevancy algorithms.
Now why do I enjoy "0 likes" on the Fediverse?
Because it's a reminder of something I have here that I can't have on Big Social: the ability to make something for its own sake, without regard for whether anyone likes it—my singular belief it deserves to exist.
I can't feel that way on Big Social because an algorithm decides what deserves to be seen.
What does an algorithm know about self-expression?
Now you all know what kind of pain Big Social causes me.
What about yours?
@atomicpoet Being subjected to all kinds of dumpster fire conversations and such a toxic environment, there is no positive net worth to it. Real conversations are kept to a minimum and finding people with the same values or interests is actually super hard.
In the end, Big Social does not make me happy. Small Social does.
@atomicpoet One thing I hate is when the feed jumps around, and that's caused by it being algorithmic.
You refresh (compulsively, like a tic) to see if there's anything new, and you get a totally different set of posts, and this seems to happen even if you've set it to chronological.
If you ask "are there any new posts for me", Facebook and Twitter will NEVER say no. They'll find /something/ to show you.
I'm about to leave Mastodon for a few months. Not because I had a bad time, or couldn't find interesting people, or don't think the concept of a fediverse is dumb. On the contrary, I think it's great. I just have other stuff to do. But before I go, I want to share some thoughts as an ex-Twitter designer and someone who's been on Mastodon since 2018. #mastodon #twitter #ux #design #critique #hashtags #introduction 🧵
Yep! When I realized:
1. major platforms are *designed* to force people into a false popularity contest
2. platform manipulation was rampant in service to the false popularity contest
3. algos facilitated the false popularity contest, rewarding platform manipulation ....
My brain hit a brick wall. I wanted no part of the sham. I ditched about 5k following & followers and learned to ignore the numbers entirely.
@atomicpoet I never tried writing for the algorithm, which I assume is why Big Social stopped bothering to show my posts to anyone.
Didn't seem much point posting anything to platforms which won't show it to even people who explicitly ask by following, so I mostly quit doing so.
@atomicpoet What a fantastic moment of self reflection. I imagine we all were. It's normal to have a public and private self. It's another altogether to be led to a certain level of inauthenticity just to be heard.
Algorithms squash serendipity by design. They do not enhance it.
My experience on how many followers you get when you write naturally for 1.5 years:
Birdsite: < 100
Mastodon: > 400
Oh, and they slowly started hiding people from me that I was following & interested in because I didn't "engage" enough or something
Chris Trottier
user not found
Ben Curthoys
AnarchyBrownies
Oblomov
Vincent 🌻🇪🇺 en 🌹☘️
Rigo Wenning
BadCat 😼
Andrew Leahey
irishoutsider
BlueDahlia
ProgGrrl
Virginia Murr
Adam Dalliance
corbeaucrypto
GunChleoc
Ben
em dee (they/them)
Lemlin Spireite