60 lines
3.5 KiB
Markdown
60 lines
3.5 KiB
Markdown
---
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draft: false
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date: 2023-07-16T16:52:06+02:00
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title: I'm Back on Mastodon
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description: In this blog post I describe why I decided to get back on Mastodon.
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authors: ['Sam Al-Sapti']
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tags: ['decentralization', 'privacy', 'fediverse', 'social media']
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series: []
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---
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May 1, 2023 marked one year since I deleted my Facebook account. That was the
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last account I had on the Big Tech social media platforms that all compete for
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our attention and behavioral data (technically I'm still on LinkedIn, although
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I rarely use it). How has it been? To say it mildly, liberating.
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Last summer, after reading *Digital Minimalism* by Cal Newport (fantastic book
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by the way, you should give it a read if you haven't), I also deleted my
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Mastodon account. At the time, I thought to myself that I really only used it
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as I used to use Facebook, wasting my time, and I probably did. Thinking back,
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I did really need a break from social media in general in order to get my mind
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back on track, and I'm glad I made that decision. I was still too used to
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Facebook and the likes. After deleting everything, I used the extra time I
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suddenly had to focus on life and finish my bachelor's degree. Now a year
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later, I decided to join the Fediverse again, so I created a new [Mastodon
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account](https://social.data.coop/@sam). I did so for a couple of reasons.
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The primary reason is that I felt a bit too disconnected from the online world,
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and since my career and interests are in IT, that didn't work for me. It is
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true that the best form of social interaction is outside the screen. But in the
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modern world we live in, technology can add substantial value to your life,
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**but only if you use it properly**. The book *Digital Minimalism* taught me
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what "properly" means (again, read it). By not being on any form of social
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media, I wasn't able to keep track of what the latest trends are and what
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people are talking about at the moment (in general but mostly regarding IT).
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But also just when it comes to meeting new people, or maintaining a network, or
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finding out about events happening near me. By using technology in a way where
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it enhances my life, instead of the opposite where the technology uses me, I
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can actually get some value from it. Although I'm back on social media, I
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believe I have the tools and the knowledge necessary for maintaining a healthy
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relationship with social media and my usage of it. For this reason, I've also
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decided that I won't ever support the attention seeking social media platforms,
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that is social media owned by Big Tech. Because let's face it, we can't really
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have a healthy relationship with a social media platform if it keeps trying
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with all its power to get us hooked onto it and get us sucked into its reality,
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it's simply not possible.
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This leads me to my second reason. In order to support the world-wide migration
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to decentralized alternatives to Big Tech, I need to be on there myself. That's
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the best way to show my support for the Fediverse. Looking at the recent
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conflicts with Big Tech platforms, such as the changes in the Reddit API or
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Elon Musk buying and basically destroying Twitter as we know it, this is the
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best time to do so. I want to be a bigger part of that movement. Right now is
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the time where most people are starting to realize, that big centralized
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platforms maybe aren't the best option out there, and that decentralization is
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the better way.
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So, to summarize, did I regret leaving Mastodon? No, I didn't. But I'm glad
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that I'm back in the Fediverse, and I'll continue to support the move towards
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decentralized platforms. I truly believe that this is the right path forward.
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