I joined Mastodon, a part of the wider fediverse tooling, back in 2019. I didn’t realize there’s Pixelfed, Write.as, Plume, and so much more. It just seemed like an interesting place to be as I was putting a huge burnout episode behind me and looking to start things.
As I approach 3 years on the fediverse, I am looking back. I’ve grown as a developer and as a person. I’ve become better at using social media. And I’ve had my own journeys throughout this time.
The thing I somewhat miss is the novelty. I was following blog after blog, person after person. Everything — and everyone — seemed so interesting. Now it just feels like any other social media platform, albeit, way more sensible given its niche nature. And yes, it is niche!
That following and discovery frenzy resulted in a cognitive overload over the long-term, and I chose to cut back on both posting as well as reading. Now, I have ~200 accounts being followed across both my profile (personal and tech). And I still find it overwhelming… unable to read/catch up with more than what’s in front of me when I open Mastodon.
My Miniflux feed reader too is quite bare (updates maybe once a day at best) but I’m not sure if I’m ready to have it be flooding everyday like before.
The trend is somewhat also the same on my own blog if we widen our field of vision. Since June 2022, I rarely have posted.
Although not as bad as Twitter, I struggle with using Mastodon in a way that’s beneficial to me. There are varying ideas on what usefulness is — and if social media can ever be that for some camps. Anyway, I feel in control and definitely have more of it in reality as well compared to Twitter, and for that I am thankful.
I feel at home here. I don’t intend to go back, but what lies ahead I do not know.
Inspired by Chris, I thought I’d drop in a quick post today. Just felt like it. Nothing major, nothing too overwhelming. Until next time.