I’m not the most social, consistent, photogenic, outgoing or communicative person. I don’t tend to call people out of the blue, meet up with friends, or even have friends for that matter. Basically, I’m the worst candidate for social media.

I never really understood social media fully. You go to a site to post personal information amongst other people’s personal information so that you can seek validation from strangers to use as the standard with which the interest level of your life is measured. Hmm. This always sounded so unappealing to me. As much as I forced myself, I could never really get into the act?, practice?, habit?, of posting about random things online.

At first, I thought it was the platform I was using. It needed to offer enough content that I could find of interest for me to justify investing my time and data in. I’ve tried ‘em all; Reddit, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, etc… The only one of these I’ve actually stayed with has been Reddit. I’ve done relatively well there, and although the comment sections can be pretty slanted, at least you receive comments for what you post. No screaming into the void like bird site and such.

Over time, I started to feel out what it is that draws me to a social media site, what my hook is: reciprocation. I need to know someone out there might be listening and would like to make a friend as much as I do. I need a human element to my social media, funny enough. That’s when I came across Mastodon, a free left turn on the modern concept of social media where you aren’t farmed for your info and don’t feel ostracized.

I had joined Mastodon once before and just got too distracted by the entertainments of life (work, family, etc.) to stick to it and sort of fizzled out. This was through no fault of the platform at all, just my own.

I’ve gone back again, and man does it feel good to be part of such a community. I’m amongst so many creative, skillful, artistic and like-minded people here. No post goes without some comment or favorite and it motivates you to return the love and encourage others. Everyone tends to be so nice and encouraging too. AAAH! I love it. It’s a little corner of freedom that like the ones that used to exist on the internet, when people contributed because they wanted to add something new, not just something to boost their likes and algorithm brownie points.

Long live Mastodon and its beautiful communities!