Nearly 2 Years Post-Social Media

I began using social media in 2008. I found reconnecting with people I hadn’t spoken with in many years, being able to share video and pictures with family, and being able to meet new friends compelling. After slightly more than 10 years, I realized that social media (at least in its current form), was not for me.

In February of 2022, I stopped posting on social media and deleted my social media accounts. This change was not because of any single event, but because in spite of the many potential positive features of social media, they are not worth the cost (at least to me).

All the large social media platforms generate revenue by developing a profile of each user and selling it to advertisers. There have been documented cases of privacy breaches, including individually identifiable information, such as date of birth and passwords. A large medical organization inadvertently passed on patient names and primary care provider names, among other protected healthcare data to Facebook through a tracking pixel.

In addition to these security threats, big social media has created a toxic environment in which people are increasingly divided, and uncivil. Regulatory bodies have requested internal data from social media companies to help study the mental health impact on minors, but at least in some cases, the social media companies have not cooperated.

While I have left the big social media companies, I want to have an option of sharing photos and thoughts with others and reconnecting with people. I am trying a new version of social media, known as the “Fediverse”.  Some of the services I am trying include Mastodon and Pixelfed, but there are others.

The key feature of these platforms is that they are open source and their means of generating revenue is not through building an advertising profile on their users.  I believe they are safer.

The Fediverse is tiny compared to the big social media companies, but bigger isn’t always better.

Thanks for reading. Stay in touch.