The fediverse is a collection of community-owned, decentralized social networks that are constructed using the same ActivityPub protocol.

It contains popular, ad free alternatives to large corporate social networks like Facebook and Twitter.

It has the big boys scared, and for good reason.

From fediverse.to:

Each fediverse instance is managed by a human admin. You can find fediverse instances dedicated to art, music, technology, culture, or politics.

It has networks that are similar to fascist-owned and controlled corporations like Facebook/Meta, X, etc, but they’re much, much better. To start, it has no advertising or feed algorithms, and is filled with lots of kind, smart folks from all over the world. And of course, most importantly, not run by evil companies.

In August of 2023 I joined one of those social networks, called Mastodon, and I haven’t looked back since. There are often many servers or ‘instances’ within a network, and I joined Hachyderm, which has a tech industry theme. I’m in the presence of smart, funny, highly skilled folks, and I couldn’t be happier with my experience there so far.

There are of course things that I will miss about Twitter, such as my network of super local bike friends, the international network of progressives, and the ability to reach out and actually sometimes communicate with world famous physicists, musicians, and other people I admire.

But I’d rather forge new friendships on networks that I can actually get behind, ethically speaking.

In the early part of 2024, I created an account on Pxlmo, which is an instance on Pixelfed, a social network similar to Instagram. I haven’t used it much so far, but I’m resolved to quit using Instagram and close my account in 2025, so the Pxlmo and Pixelfed folks will be seeing more of me soon!

As a Digital Manager for a marketing agency, I’m bound to Facebook, as people my age and older will likely continue to use it no matter what horrors occur. But I’m planning to utilize an old joke account I made for my dummy work account.

Overall, it’s safe to say that I’m making moves to put all corporate, for profit social media behind me, and the Fediverse has made that possible.

Onward!