This afternoon I got a Telegram message from a friend who asked me what I think about Mastodon.
As I elaborated my answer, I realized it would be a good idea to publish my reasoning on Hive.
Why Twitter?
Let's start from the beginning: why Twitter ? I long thought Twitter was a stupid fad. I mean, what can you say in 140 characters that is worth reading? Then, somehow, by miracle, to my great astonishment, I started learning that a lot of noteworthy people, politicians, mainstream media, etc. were using this idiotic platform ...
But I dismissed that - what can they say in 140 chars that would be worth my time ?
Then the limit went up to 280. Then Donald Trump became a Twitter star and more and more MSM reports were reporting ... what had first happened on Twitter...
So the draw became too powerful to resist: as long as I'm reading in newspaper and seeing / hearing in the news what's been said on Twitter... I might as well go to the source directly ...
So I started using Twitter and discovered a lot (like .. A LOT!) of accounts who were experts in their fields, obviously very bright people and who, for reasons beyond my ability to comprehend, were writing LONG explanations / analyses on Twitter using threads (chained tweets of 240 chars).
Why ? Beats me ! Writing threads is not particularly easy nor user friendly. You cannot edit your tweets (even less your threads) so all typos are there for everyone to enjoy ... You are not sure who you are reaching with your tweets / threads because you don't control Twitter's algorithms... Heck, you are not even sure that Twitter won't erase your work because someone might "report abuse" ...
But despite all that, smart people keep to this day writing valuable things on Twitter ... so it's worth going there to read them ...
The miracle Twitter somehow accomplished is to get all these bright people to write deep pieces on Twitter first ...
What about now?
I personally think Elon Musk is one of the most important persons alive. While everybody is wringing their hands and obsessing about an undesirable phenomenon we caused and seem ill placed to address (climate change), Elon is the only one who is offering a positive dream: colonizing Mars.
Wrapping-up
So where do I stand ?
- I might consider Mastodon if I find out that there are interesting authors to read there first. Until then ... shrug ...
- As the flight to Mastodon is usually a response to Elon taking over Twitter, it seems fair to assume that those who migrate do not admire Elon as I do ... that doesn't necessarily makes them unworthy of my time / interest/ attention, but it certainly doesn't not encourage me to follow them.
What about you ?
What are your thoughts?
I've never made a Twitter account, but with Elon taking over, it's become more tempting. He might make things better in the long-term, despite his chaotic entrance.
Even so, I'm not gonna join the herd going to Mastodon, nor will I even make a Twitter account. I'll just stick to the outer-reaches of the internet.
Twitter is an interesting phenomenon. but it never lived up to its early potential.
That is not the case at all: we have many options (and the technology and money) for addressing climate change. Unfortunately, we also have a small group of very greedy people for whom those solutions are not convenient.
My favourite recent joke:
A billionaire, a narcissist and a cry-baby walk into a bar.
The bar-tender asks: "What'll you have Mr Musk?"
I won't be going to Mastodon.
Perhaps we have (at least in theory) options, technology and money to address climate change. However collectively we do not seem able to organise in order to effectively do so. So the end result is that we could, but we won't...
https://ecency.com/politics/@sorin.cristescu/a-climate-policy
Elon Musk is definitely a hero of productivity, personal freedom, and efficiency. Many would say he is not human, and from the psychological point of view this might be very true. But Twitter became a Colossus, with a strong culture, which looks to be very different from Elon's believes. Interesting to watch how the events will unfold in the next few weeks, perhaps months...
Indeed, this is going to be interesting to watch as it unfolds