Seriously though, it’s sad what’s happened to Twitter over the years. I remember joining it back in '08 while I was at uni. It was a great, fun way to connect with people from all walks of life, to hear different viewpoints and learn new things.
But I guess we all got high on being able to have a voice, and began getting louder and louder. Then Twitter engineered it so that we’d see people outside our bubble and it just became a huge, never-ending flamewar of opinions and diatribes. It really fucked my mental health, tbh. Realising that you get most of your interactions from being snarky makes you double down on the snark, so you start looking for things to be shitty about, or you spend all the time thinking about the shittiest thing you can say to “the enemy”.
Before you know it, you’re as much of a shithead as the people you’re yelling at, but with the added bonus of thinking you’re being righteous.
Now I use Mastodon all the time. Sure, there’s snark, but I try to avoid it, and actively work towards being a more positive voice on there.
I was really surprised by the general positivity on Mastodon and it was the first thing I noticed when I signed up. There’s sometimes a little drama, but it’s not the overarching theme by any means. I’ve had a lot of laughs there.
Oh dear. How sad. Never mind.
Seriously though, it’s sad what’s happened to Twitter over the years. I remember joining it back in '08 while I was at uni. It was a great, fun way to connect with people from all walks of life, to hear different viewpoints and learn new things.
But I guess we all got high on being able to have a voice, and began getting louder and louder. Then Twitter engineered it so that we’d see people outside our bubble and it just became a huge, never-ending flamewar of opinions and diatribes. It really fucked my mental health, tbh. Realising that you get most of your interactions from being snarky makes you double down on the snark, so you start looking for things to be shitty about, or you spend all the time thinking about the shittiest thing you can say to “the enemy”.
Before you know it, you’re as much of a shithead as the people you’re yelling at, but with the added bonus of thinking you’re being righteous.
Now I use Mastodon all the time. Sure, there’s snark, but I try to avoid it, and actively work towards being a more positive voice on there.
I was really surprised by the general positivity on Mastodon and it was the first thing I noticed when I signed up. There’s sometimes a little drama, but it’s not the overarching theme by any means. I’ve had a lot of laughs there.
Mastodon feels much the same way Twitter did back when I first joined, which is nice.