Brian MerchantWrote about the ~current state~ of social media, and why Mastodon, while far from perfect, is pretty much the only decent app left standing at this point
JohnNicholsGallery@brianmerchant I will be follower 938
El Duvelle@brianmerchant Mastodon, quiet? 😳
Ben Kanter@elduvelle @brianmerchant rings very true for me. I basically duplicated my Twitter account but about half those I followed aren't here and those that are post less. Expanding out in topics and following hashtags did not compensate. It's nice, polite, but much quieter and a bit boring. 🤷♂️
@beneuroscience @brianmerchant you’re basically saying that 1) you don’t follow enough people and 2) the ones you follow rarely post… of course it’s going to be boring :)
@elduvelle @brianmerchant well all else being equal, it's less active for me. I don't feel there's tons of other neuro folks out there I want to follow that I'm missing. Twitter (probably it's algorithm) made it effortless to have a bunch of new content. I think you invested far more here than there and so it's active for you. But it took far more effort, I think.
@beneuroscience @brianmerchant yes, agree with all this! So it’s not that Mastodon is empty or boring in itself… it’s about what you make of it. My feed is anything but too serious or too boring. Yes, it requires some effort. But not that much really… and I accepted that small effort when I realized what Twitter was turning into and the possibilities that Mastodon had to offer.
And yes, a lot of the NeuroTwitter people are either not here, or they are but with a ghost account (worse). I miss them… but what can I do 🤷
Darwin Woodkashame about the paywall though. Looked interesting. Oh well.
Scott Burton@darwinwoodka @brianmerchant support local media
@brianmerchant everyone is blaming musk for destroying Twitter, whereas I congratulate him for proving that social networks are expensive to operate and make almost no money
tomgrau 👨💻@scottburton @brianmerchant I am not sure if that’s entirely true. Social networks create an awful lot of money for so called „influencers“.
The top 4 accounts on only fans create around $40 - $50 million dollars in subscription fees per month.
The top 10 earners get $1 - $2 million dollars per post on instagram.
If a tiny percentage of those revenues is not enough to finance your social network, maybe you’re doing something wrong.
What am I missing?
@tomgrau @brianmerchant you’re missing the fact the network’s revenue and an influencer’s revenue are totally independent and unrelated. And probably a few other things too?
@scottburton @brianmerchant If you are referring to the fact that influencer revenue is not funneled through social networks, than you are of course right, but I didn’t forget that.
But saying those things are „totally independent“ is simply not entirely true.
Influencer revenue is 99% dependent on followers and interaction on social media. Hence, a tier model like: „1000 followers are free, above that, you have to pay“ wouldn’t be impossible.
@scottburton @brianmerchant I never understood why social networks are spending billions of dollars to create „tools“ for incluncers to make millions and give them away for free 🤷♀️
Angus Marshall 
@brianmerchant The "social" aspect is the bit that gets lost when these centralised platforms become "media". "Monetised media" would, perhaps, be a better description of their ambitions.
stonehead@brianmerchant I dare not boost this post right now, because I don't want Mastodon to become too arrogant
Malte@brianmerchant Good perspectives and I think your personal experience is part of the answer for the mood and ambience that is part of Mastodon at the moment. It tends to attract and keep people that are more likely to think long-term, for the moment. I think there's a major trajectory for a federated internet developing, that favors places like Mastodon. It will take time to seem obvious.
ExcelAnalytics@brianmerchant
"I mostly wound up following academics and progressive tech folks on Mastodon. To me, it has the vibe of a great cocktail party after an academic conference: fascinating people, stimulating if polite discussions, and a sense — one you know is dumb and juvenile but still can’t shake — that you’re missing a rager somewhere else."
"I mostly wound up following academics and progressive tech folks on Mastodon. To me, it has the vibe of a great cocktail party after an academic conference: fascinating people, stimulating if polite discussions, and a sense — one you know is dumb and juvenile but still can’t shake — that you’re missing a rager somewhere else."
Poppy's Hornyposting Space 
@brianmerchant Personally, I feel that how much better the Fediverse is also makes it not-so-attractive amongst outsiders. There’s no algorithm to provoke people to drive up engagement (no matter how meaningless it is for the individual), but most people would have to gradually follow others to discover what they want to see. There’s nothing that can show them what posts they (sort of) want. For them, who have mostly just used algorithmic homepages until now, that kind of change can be jarring. There’s also the fact that the Fediverse just uses a pure chronological timeline, which cannot be changed by either personalized algorithms to get people addicted or voting systems (aka the ones on Reddit and Youtube), which can often be skewed by groupthink or irrational hysteria. This means everyone has a chance of being heard, and not just the voices other people want to hear (resulting in a higher variety of ideas). However, this also means that people wouldn’t really see influencers, which would be the initial drivers for going to other kinds of social media. They would see a different set of people on their timeline, which they are unfamiliar with. Basically, the Fediverse isn’t like other social media, which has the resources and economic incentive to artificially drive up engagement for their platforms.
Graham Ward@brianmerchant it's a good article whichever side of the pond you are!
daniel_ahlqvist 
@brianmerchant A good column that accurately sums up what the social media experience is like now. For me the fediverse and Mastodon is the only social media that I currently check every day. Sure I can't yet see all of my old friends from X here. But hopefully more and more of them will come to realize that this is something that so much better than what X has become. Here you can actually have a conversation with people that have different opinions and not become threatened by them.
@daniel_ahlqvist cheers — and yes, that's what's preventing me from moving entirely. perhaps it's a question of professional necessity and time management; have to decide where to spend my time looking for the biggest-picture matters. and there's no easy answer!
Carl Heath@brianmerchant that was a very nice read, thank you! Yesterday I wrote an op ed in one of the larger Swedish newspapers on the topic of X, Mastodon and public discourse. I think your piece really illustrates the difference between social aspects of the different digital spaces, and you seem come to a similar conclusion from a very different angle than me.
It's time for an open public discourse
The text below is my translated version of an op ed I wrote in Swedish, and which was published today in the major Swedish newspaper Svenska Dagbladet. Recently, Twitter, perhaps the most important place for digital public discourse in Sweden, ceased to exist. Instead it was replaced by X, a
Christos Argyropoulos MD, PhD@brianmerchant Great article. I started using reddit after Musk.
@ChristosArgyrop thanks -- you're not alone!
Meredith@brianmerchant excellent column