@mayintoronto I remember checking it out in 2017 because it had a higher character limit than Twitter, but I didn't catch on. in November of 2022 I moved here like many others. I've had to jump instances a couple of times but I migrated my account and kept the connections (even though I lost some good toots, RIP strangeobject and dot lol).

I moved here with a few long-term friends, so that helped me keep using it. I got to know many people from the instances I've been on and maintained those friendships. a lot more has organically developed.

the fedi has affirmed a lot of things about me that needed affirmations I can't always get in other spaces. I've learned so much. I feel less alone. there has been drama that's stressed me out and I've needed to manage some tendencies of feeling responsible for what's wrong with the world; this is more of an issue here than on corporate social media where it's more impersonal, but overall the fedi is still better for me.

I have developed pretty strong communities in other spaces too, both on- and offline, which helps me stay balanced. I try to get some of those friends to join here but they don't want to bother with it for various reasons. that's fine, though; it's a separate space for me to process things around different groups of people with different perspectives.