I joined Mastodon in December last year, and it’s lead to me thinking about social media in general and what makes Mastodon different. I’ve had a version of this post in the works since February, as I try to articulate how much I love Mastodon. I find that I’m enjoying it more than mainstream social media – which, in light of my recent experience, can seem like an echo chamber. (For context, I used to frequent Twitter, Reddit, and Tumblr. I quit in late 2016–early 2017, though I do lurk occasionally.) A reverse-chronological feed is a refreshing departure from an algorithm-controlled one; and no algorithm’s recommendations can beat human serendipity. Mastodon feels social rather than performative.
As a result, I find that I’m being exposed to a lot of different perspectives. A small sampling:
- I’ve learned about IndieWeb and its principles; decentralization and federation; and taking back control of our content. It’s a radically different view of the Internet than what one might be used to from mainstream social media. Plus, ActivityPub is very cool – the Fediverse is huge.
- I’ve learned about the “old web” – its earnestness, its simplicity, its charm; how your website was your home on the internet – and how you can’t really say the same for any mordern service, in an age of silos.
- I’ve learned about the strain the Internet places on our energy resources, and how sustainable web design can offset some of it.
In addition, I’ve learned a lot about open source and Linux; I finally gained the confidence to attempt an Arch install (which went swimmingly and has changed my life).
It’s inspiring! So to that end, I’m trying to do my bit. Inspired by Low Tech
Magazine’s
and Gauthier
Roussile’s efforts,
I’ve spent the weekend revamping this website. I’m pleased to report that it is
now about half the size of the old (the index page is 19KB, vs 40KB previously).
I learned about browser caching (as I understand, it has to be set in the
.htaccess file for your web server, which I can’t modify on GitLab Pages),
image optimization, and gzipping.
This website is purely static – no tracking, no advertising, no analytics. It’s lightweight and privacy-respecting and beautiful to boot. ;)