What is Mastodon?
With Twitter's recent notoriety, countless social media platforms have emerged from the shadows. If you've spent any time on social media since Elon's takeover, I'm sure you've heard rumblings about Mastodon. It first launched back in 2016 and has a much smaller community than the likes of Twitter, but has been gradually growing in size. Today there are over a million active monthly users and the number seems to be growing rapidly. But is the sudden hype justified?
How does it work?
Mastodon is a unique platform where organizations, individuals, or communities can create an "instance". An instance is just a word they've coined for "server". Each server acts independently and can have its own rules around things like moderation and community guidelines, censorship, and who can join the community. The interesting dynamic is that people can also interact with other servers.
The "Email" Example
You might still be a little bit confused about how this all works like I was. I spent a few days exploring the platform and the analogy that keeps popping into my head is how email works.
Think of Mastodon servers as different email services. There is Gmail, Outlook, and countless other email services you can use in 2022. Just because you sign up for a Gmail account doesn't mean you can't send an email to someone with an Outlook account. Each email provider stores your data on its own servers, but you still have the freedom to interact with others however you want. Mastodon is just like this. It gives each community a basic framework for interacting with each other. It helps servers talk to each other, and it also gives admins and users the ability to block other instances from communicating with theirs (like blocking an email address from sending you messages). This is an oversimplified example, but hopefully it helps you understand the basic concepts of how the platform works.
Getting Started
The easiest way to get started with Mastodon is to visit the list of popular Mastodon servers. Pick one that's most relevant to your interests and you'll be more likely to meet other like-minded people. For me, I chose techhub.social because of its focus on technology. After you sign up, you'll see an app very similar to Twitter's. You can create posts, search for hashtags, and even view trending posts. These are great ways to discover other members in your server and beyond.
Final Thoughts
In the short time I've spent exploring Mastodon, I'm extremely impressed with the connections I've made so far. Interactions feel very genuine just like they did in the early days of Twitter. Self-promotion seems to be much more of an afterthought and chatting about relevant topics seem to be what most people are interested in. It's refreshing to be a part of a community that clearly has had enough of the trends we've seen with social media over the past few years. Mastodon is not perfect by any means, but it sure is a massive step in the right direction for social media and I'm eager and hopeful to see if it sticks around.
Feel free to connect with me on Mastodon!
