Posted as 3 posts on facebook. I left them up because I wanted people to be able to find them. I changed my passwords and then deleted them form my password manager.
This is my third last post on facebook ever. I'm splitting it in three, because Meta has been blocking mention of alternatives. This first one is about why I'm leaving, the second is on alternatives, and the third is on how to find me elsewhere. Then I'm going to change my password to something I don't know, and log out on all devices.
I think the reasons I'm leaving are really well encapsulated in this book, Stolen Focus, by Johann Hari. It covers many reasons why our attention spans have been degrading over the last few decades, a substantial chunk of which is due to corporate social media (personally, I think the jury is still out on whether other forms of social media can be beneficial) If you care about your personal mental health, or global geopolitics, or climate change, I'd strongly suggest reading it. The book covers a lot of ground, includes a lot of research, and has an excellent systemic analysis (instead of the usual individualistic focus of self-help books). It's also an enjoyable read.
Here's a summary of the core reasons I'm leaving:
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Content driven by advertising-optimised algorithms that push conflict-heavy, reactive content, and decrease our capacity for nuanced, thoughtful, and empathetic communication. Hari makes the case that this is dramatically affecting our ability to engage as a society with complex issues like climate change.
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The same process also destroys our ability to be attentive, and robs us of our capacity to fully engage and enjoy life outside of the internet too. I haven't been using facebook much for the last 2 years, and apart from missing a couple of events maybe, nothing is worse, and some things are substantially better.
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Facebook is a walled garden. You can't easily interact with the rest of the internet, and it's design pushes you to stay here. Platforms that interoperate with the rest of the internet in an open way, ensure that bad-actors can't enshittify the platform. More on this in the next post.
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Meta is just fucking evil, as they have shown repeatedly, and with gradually less and less shame over the last 8-10 years. I don't want to be involved anymore.
I'm not gonna be replying to comments here. My last post will include other ways to contact me.
Second last post ever on facebook. If you missed the last one on why I'm leaving, it might because I said something Meta wouldn't like. Next one will be on where to find me.
This one is on alternatives. There are two critical issues here: 1. No centralised control that can be monopolised and enshittified by another corporate oligarch. Services must interact openly with other parts of the internet. 2. No vendor lock-in. If my service's owner does something shit, I want to be able to migrate to another provider - vote with my feet
For a more detailed explanation of why no corporate-controlled, profit driven social media platform will ever be good, I'd suggest reading this article by Cory Doctorow: https://pluralistic.net/2024/11/02/ulysses-pact/#tie-yourself-to-a-federated-mast
The alternatives that currently exist are listed in the image. I'm not typing out their names here, because Meta has been blocking any posts that mention some of them. You can search the name to find out more details.
The common thread amongst all of them (except signal) is that they are designed to be federated. Which basically just means that there are lots of different websites all offering the same kind of service, and they all talk to each other. Pretty much the same idea as email domains. This means that there's a little bit of confusion in choosing your first server (most of them have tools to help you do that though), but once you have, you can interact with anyone on any of the servers.
Federation, combined with the ability to move to different servers while still maintaining your networks, means that (unlike corporate, centralised social media), there is no vendor lock-in, and there will never be One Big Arsehole controlling everything and fucking it up for everyone else.
Next post will be a list of my accounts on these services, with recommendations on how and why to join each. I'm not gonna be replying to comments here. My last post will include other ways to contact me.
This is my last post ever on facebook. There were two more before this, giving reasons and alternatives. This one is a list of my accounts on other services, some of which are banned, so this post might not appear.
The most popular federated service right now is Mastodon. It's a twitter-style micro-blogging social network. I'm on one of the main general servers, at https://mastodon.social/naught101 . For new users in Aus, I'd recommend joining aus.social or mastodon.au, or one of the bigger global servers. You could also join an issue-specific server if you're looking for something in particular. Doesn't really matter which you join, you'll be able to interact with people on all of them. A key thing for mastodon is that you should follow a lot early on. In particular, find hashtags that interest you, and follow those.
Pixelfed is an instagram-like image-focussed social network. I'm at https://pixelfed.social/naught101 . For this service, I'd recommend downloading the app (it's free and has no ads), and joining whichever server it suggests first.
Friendica is a facebook-style social network, with groups and events and stuff. It's a little less popular, but it can interact with content from a lot of other networks, including pixelfed and mastodon (e.g. you can comment on stuff that's on pixelfed or mastodon from Friendica). I'm at https://friendica.world/profile/naught101 - and I guess that server is the best to join at the moment, because it's one of the bigger ones.
Lemmy is a reddit-style link aggregator and forum. It basically feels exactly like reddit. It's not user focused, but you can find me at https://lemmy.world/u/naught101 - I'd suggest joining that server, or lemm.ee, or maybe aussie.zone or slrpnk.net. Again, you can interact with content from any server, but the front page of each might have a different focus.