In Praise of Mastodon After an Insurrection, or, What if Donald Trump Had Joined Mastodon?

Robert W. Gehl, 08 January 2021

In a previous post, I disparaged 2020. But hey, just wait: 2021 has already become pretty bad. As you probably have seen, pro-Trump supporters decided to invade the U.S. Capitol on January 6.

I am not a tech determinist, which means that I do not seek to explain complexity by only considering changes in technology. So I am not going to say that corporate social media -- including Facebook and Twitter -- caused what happened yesterday. In other words, I am not going to say that the spread of misinformation was the reason for people to blithely walk past the cops and into the Rotunda. To do so would ignore a host of other factors, such as the history of racism in the United States and the desire for politicians to aggrandize themselves.

So I'm not saying Facebook and Twitter are to blame. What I will say, however, is that one contributing factor to the events of January 6, 2021 -- not the sole determining factor -- is corporate social media.

And thus I come in praise of Mastodon.

Why?

The Attention Economy

Post Tags

• Goal 2
• Mastodon