From f727e310b513727ceae8390b8b277d0241139577 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: a Date: Tue, 27 Feb 2024 03:27:51 -0600 Subject: [PATCH] fix pullquotes --- content/blog/twitter-not-social/index.md | 10 +++++----- 1 file changed, 5 insertions(+), 5 deletions(-) diff --git a/content/blog/twitter-not-social/index.md b/content/blog/twitter-not-social/index.md index 06d31fd..86c7b65 100644 --- a/content/blog/twitter-not-social/index.md +++ b/content/blog/twitter-not-social/index.md @@ -35,25 +35,25 @@ src = 'failwhale.png'

Thanks, Jack. Twitter the social network is dead. That service that started out as a way to send status updates to your friends has been replaced by Twitter, a bloated, lumbering mess trying to force-feed you a stale diet of whatever Content™ floats to the top of the river of shit.

- +failwhale
Pictured above: a whale being lifted out of sludgy waters, which, aside from being reminiscent of a more whimiscal Twitter dot com from 2008, is also an apt metaphor for massively-viral content being surfaced from what is otherwise a toxic environment.
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The short and bitter truth is that Twitter found out, regrettably, that being a conversational platform is not monetizable or profitable. It just took about four years for them to finally admit that they gave up on being an open, conversational platform and they are now a content aggregator.

+

The short and bitter truth is that Twitter found out, regrettably, that being a conversational platform is not monetizable or profitable. It just took about four years for them to finally admit that they gave up on being an open, conversational platform and they are now a content aggregator.

Now, anyone looking for a conversational platform is not going to find it on Twitter. How can there be conversation when you can't even be sure of the visibility of your messages? I, for one, have already mostly abandoned this network-that-is-not-a-network-anymore, as have several others.

In a world where the big "social networks" are trying very hard to no longer be social networks  —  with Facebook trying to be your news feed and Twitter trying much the same before pivoting to surfacing viral content —  there is a big void for people who still want to communicate. To be social, among their network of friends.

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At least for me, I'm filling that void with Mastodon, which — *gasp* — doesn't try to be something that it's not. Just a way to keep up with other people, with no ads and no algorithmic shuffling — just your friends' statuses, in reverse-chronological order.

+

At least for me, I'm filling that void with Mastodon, which — *gasp* — doesn't try to be something that it's not. Just a way to keep up with other people, with no ads and no algorithmic shuffling — just your friends' statuses, in reverse-chronological order.

And even though Mastodon has only been usable for barely over a year, it's growing and improving quickly enough that I feel comfortable enough to use it full-time. It's absolutely refreshing to have a laid-back conversational hangout again. You can find me at https://mastodon.social/@trwnh for now — and if you want to learn more, go to https://joinmastodon.org and read about how it works.

It's probably going to be a bit of a shock at first, and hard to understand if you're used to being a product. But it makes way more sense when you do get it. Because we've been conditioned by the past decade to view everything through the lens of capital and profit; we've grown dependent on corporations to provide our platforms, for their benefit and not for ours. We're just a metric for them, another pair of eyeballs to view ads.

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We think it's ridiculous for things to be open and accessible and free, because we're used to everything being locked down and user-hostile. It's absolutely heartbreaking — the darkest timeline. But not inevitably so. We have an actual chance to redeem ourselves, however slim. And that starts with realizing where we came from — how everything used to be open and free, before it was encircled and carved up by corporations for profit. You can email anyone, on any service. You can call/text anyone, on any carrier. But NOT on the internet. That's sad.

+

We think it's ridiculous for things to be open and accessible and free, because we're used to everything being locked down and user-hostile. It's absolutely heartbreaking — the darkest timeline. But not inevitably so. We have an actual chance to redeem ourselves, however slim. And that starts with realizing where we came from — how everything used to be open and free, before it was encircled and carved up by corporations for profit. You can email anyone, on any service. You can call/text anyone, on any carrier. But NOT on the internet. That's sad.

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Our phone networks are free.
+

Our phone networks are free.
Our email networks are free.
Our browsers are free.
Our World Wide Web is free, with some challenges and attacks.