Metaphors

I've been thinking a log about metaphors this week, as the wave of people fleeing Twitter continues to roll across the Fediverse.

It feels like - maybe - this is the one we were all waiting and in many cases hoping for. It's different in size, type, and in how long it's going for. And I've got to say, I'm not enjoying it.

I published a few posts yesterday and one of them "went viral" as people said unthinkingly before Covid. Not Mastodon "3 boosts and 4 likes" viral. I mean Twitter-style viral. I went to bed at 10pm and when I looked at my phone at 6am I had so many replies I had to keep hitting "load more" over and over to see them all. I felt sick. This isn't what I want from Mastodon.

There we were, a small herd of mastodons relaxing on the grasslands, swatting flies off each other and keeping an eye out for any sabre toothed tigers so we could mutually defend ourselves. On the horizon, a dark wave appeared, moving towards us fast. Shrieking at each other and the world, wave after wave of lorikeets, screeching, oblivious to the calm they have just broken. Demanding to know why they are asked to help swat flies and watch for tigers. Lost and hangry without their daily birdseed.

In the first few days I described the new people as like a busload of Kontiki tourists, caught up in their own social world and mostly oblivious to the place they have arrived at, unable to understand its context, and uninterested in learning its culture. I didn't want to go too far down this path, mindful that "colonisation is not a metaphor", but certainly it's felt like a bit of an invasion.

The basic problem is that many people have been trained to think of social interaction online as only ever possible in the digital equivalent of a shopping mall. They behave like mall rats: the owners and their security guards are considered thugs whose rules are an invitation to break. It's a place to show off. To stand out. To see and be seen. To cultivate a "personal brand". Mastodon - or at least my part of it - is more like an apartment block where a large number of house parties are happening. Some are in large penthouses with raucous dancing and loud music. Some are sleazy and weird. Some are wholesome vegan clean living get togethers. And some are just friendly parties where people are eating chips and drinking cups of tea together while they have a chat. And in come the Mall Rats. Refusing to take off their shoes, double-dipping, loudly complaining about the choice of music, and leaving the toilet seat up. It's changed the vibe, and not in a positive way.

Hopefully things will settle down in the next couple of weeks. I have a feeling what's most likely is that Twitter will implode slowly and then suddenly, but most of the "casual" Twitter users will simply spend more time on Facebook or - hopefully - spending time on more productive and pro-social things. Hardcore addicts might persist on Mastodon, but by design it's not going to give them the audience they crave. We're probably at the beginning of the end of Twitter, but not yet at the end of the beginning of whatever happens next. I'm looking forward to when the chaos gets exciting. Right now it's provoking less positive emotions.