mastodon Timeline - FediScanner

15.11.2025 23:32
untilted (@untilted@social.lol)

For as much as I genuinely prefer #Mastodon over anything else, it now feels like going to school as a kid who doesn't like school (and I didn't even mind school back then despite the attempts by students and teachers to make me hate it) instead of a social network where I can freely talk to people and not worry about others putting up a show instead of being genuine.

There's lots of freedom, alright, but I feel like the users just waste it on being overly repetitive and limited on the topics they talk about, on the type of humor they partake in, on the types of trends they prefer to boost, instead of spending it on, you know, being less homogenous and open up to maybe talking about the topics people don't know about or raising up those who have less than 100 followers.

I filter a lot of content with a lot of known keywords so that I don't feel the effects of content oversaturation, as I'm more vulnerable to it than others are. And I'm still able to see that it's always the same 5 topics that end up on trending, and it's always those same 5 topics that the most followed users talk about on all timelines.

All the topics I'm actually interested in are only talked about by a few real users that haven't been active for a while or only bring it up very few times, with the rest of the posts being from automated accounts set up to post links to news and blog articles. Which gives me the impression that some of you think "well, if an automated account is talking about it, there's no reason for us to bring it up and actually introduce our own perspective". Believe it or not, this is actually how propaganda bot accounts happen. When people stop being willing to offer up their own perspectives on the basis that "someone else is doing it for me", the manufacturing of opinions happen to the extent that no one has a genuine, well-thought-out opinion on anything real anymore. It's also how a lot of obscure but significant news gets buried in favor of loud and sensationalist topics.

It doesn't help that most of the advice I've received is either
"well, why aren't YOU the one starting the conversation"
when I already do that and I get very few meaningful engagement on my posts beyond favorites and very occasional boosts,
or "well maybe you're not making enough of an effort"
when I have already tried to be engaging in an effortful manner many times.
What's more, 90% of the conversations is always me initiating something. I'm always the one doing all the work. It should not be this way.

For the record, I have already tried every single platform and seen what they're like, and nothing has clicked with me so far besides Mastodon. At this point I'm suspecting a structural, systemic problem in every single platform I have been to.

Everyone seems to want things to be so damn homogenous and samey in the name of being "quirky and niche" and it always ends in some form of policing or elitism. No, the alternative of multiple voices all trying to reach for visibility on mainstream platforms isn't any better. Still, there has to be some sort of balance, because I'm not feeling it.

I don't want advice because I have already tried all the advice available to me. I do not have the resources right now at this moment to follow most of the advice I've been given.

A micro-culture still inadvertently promotes the same kind of cultural homogeneity that excludes others who don't fit the mold no matter how it's framed as "niche in a weird and cute way".

If your community doesn't bother to amplify lesser-known voices that genuinely want to increase beneficial diversity, it's not as inclusive as you think it is.

#criticism

Show Original Post

Report

15.11.2025 23:32
arnan (@arnan@mas.to)

This is a test post!