Mastodon feels like what social media should have always been. I can remember how cool it was to learn about other people and other cultures as a youngster listening to #shortwave radio. . .The "bird site" & "ad-book" were never like that. It was always a bunch of angry people posting pictures of angry things, arguing how awful everyone else is. No real exchange of culture & no real learning about others. I have enjoyed more here in a week than years on other social media. Well played, Mastodon!
When I go on facebook, I actually lose brain cells. The last post I saw today was a family "friend" who is in their late teens sharing a photo saying "Like this if your a virgin! :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye: :scream: :flushed:" It was also one of those horribly compressed photos.
@cws For real. I have no love lost for other social media. My entire social media presence pretty much now lives on Diaspora* and Mastodon. I find the folks on both to be more "grown-up", well-rounded and thoughtful than elsewhere. I actually LEARN stuff while enjoying my time spent on both.
Entirely agree! It just saddens me that most of my friends from school and family rather use Facebook and Twitter. The REAL discussions happen here. Here we aren't shifted around by advertisers and big corporations.
@cws My journey to privacy and, by extension, to open source and federated and decentralized social media came about as a result of realizing that I was purposely making myself available to be marketed to twice over. I used Gmail, which gave my profile to Google, so they could market to me, then sell my info to others so they could market to me via Google products and elsewhere. I just decided to not be an ad revenue generation machine.
My motives were a bit anarchist inspired I guess. Younger me was a real edgy kid. I had just learned about Linux and then I started researching about privacy and spying. I became very anti establishment and anti Government in that time frame. "THE NSA BLA BLA"
Not so much now. Now I just enjoy security and privacy, and am aiming to work in information security. Wew, a lot can change in a few years.
@cws @privacymatters Hehe! Me, too, albeit much later in life. ;-)
@cws And so now, I have taken that as far to the extreme as I can. I use Linux as my main OS. I use an Android phone running open source and Google-free software. I use search engines that don't track me. I use TOR and VPNs. I love the freedom of freedom! More difficult to execute? Perhaps. Is it worth it? You bet your bippy!
@privacymatters I hope you have tried #QubesOS :)
I myself use Whonix, a great OS for VMs.
@cws @privacymatters yeah I use Whonix within Qubes, but I don't use it for everything. (But then that's the idea of Qubes, use different VMs for different things, compartmentalisation :) )
@cws @mig5 @privacymatters tested, Snowden approved.
@cws what sort of area of infosec are you trying to get into re: work?
Not really sure. I've made a few bucks from bug bounties, but I don't find that type of work really meaningful. I want to defensive measures and such.
@mig5 I have! My go-to when the box I am on allows. Otherwise, Tails!
I also think the reason why we find more thoughtful / well-rounded people here is because these federated and open source social media platforms aren't something that are advertised, Mastodon being an outlier. I was using GNU Social much longer before this had blown up around twitter and the media. People in the past have had to really seek out these alternatives and projects, which seems to attract those types.
@privacymatters Well said, agreed!
@Darkprism Thank you! I am pretty certain that this is the prevailing sentiment among most here.
@privacymatters agreed, in general. though, I have been able to cultivate a multi-cultural, international group of friends on ad-book, where we do have cultural exchange.
Of course, its in the midst of all the raging madness, off-putting food pictures and thoroughly annoying cat obsession.
(Love cats. Not all over my social media, though.)
@UnaSpenser Hehehe. . .love me some kittehs! I didn't mean to imply relationships can't be built on "ad-book". . .I think you aptly pointed out that you have to swim through a lot of gunk to get there. Generally speaking, I personally feel like the two aforementioned sites tend towards the lowest common denominator. . .also, please see previous toots about my being an ad revenue generation module for corporatists and being subject to the privacy sieve that they are.
@privacymatters I hear ya. I'm really looking foward to the day when we have a critical mass of people connecting via venues such as mastodon and doing so over a worldwide network that bypasses all the commercial cables and signaling systems.
@UnaSpenser You are not alone with this wish. My journey to being an anticorporatist/anticapitalist has been a long one, but a rewarding one. Mastodon is a people-powered social media movement and I feel that the bypass you speak of is the next logical step in this parade.
@privacymatters I hope that organic growth, rather than forced growth for profit enables Mastodon to remain cool.
Right now it is small enough that I feel a sense of community, and I hope that as the service grows we can maintain that feeling.