The mastodon stages:

1: getting used to the interface

2: discovering that most people are just people, engaged in everyday adventures, big & small

3: the allure of the notification sound

4: a gradual getting used to the fact that not everything is about US politics, and that it's okay to filter it out on a macro level

5: a quiet moment when you think "there can still be poetry in this world"

6: some sort of reconciliation with the quantum magic that is the federated timeline

7: pineapples

@sargoth For me, it goes all downhill starting from 2: or 3:, no idea which.

Due to several radiation levels I often see myself, I'm on an eternal quest to take refuge on my own instance.

And if not Mastodon, then Pleroma, or even having to implement ActivityPub myself from scratch, from zero.