the great disentangling
tldr;
musings on the recent migration and dispersion of folks from cultures cornerstone social media platforms to different & alternative online homes
Seeing a larger momentum of people - myself included - arrive fully at a place of acceptance that the online connections we once knew are now unrecognizable; these virtual homes we found genuine and rich communities in are no longer welcoming of this kind of connection. They were never perfect, but they captured lightning in a bottle for a time as culture embraced an "online life" for the first time in human history.
I was part of an early wave of migrations to Mastodon from Twitter a few years ago. It was hard to leave a social media home that had been my main online community hub, and leave at a time when much of my community was not leaving yet. Finding and building a whole new community on Mastodon was challenging and daunting - I felt like I was screaming into the virtual void,
" where are my people? ".
I see this communal sadness so much more
- for reasons we are all aware of if you are paying attention to current events -
some friends are migrating platforms, others are not, and some are waiting and hanging on to see where their people land before they decide. Hope is a delicate thread that can feel fragile but remains so resilient.
For the past 3-4 years, we have all been aware of the descent into chaos that social media platforms have embraced, but I feel like many of us were clinging to the before times, hoping that the course would correct and regain form. For so many, these online communities have been the only spaces where many have felt truly themselves, seen and heard and accepted for who they are. However, we've turned a corner realizing that going back can never happen. Instead, we have to find a way forward - and for many of us - that means finding new online homes.
As an elder millennial, I was there at the onset of Twitter and remember when people literally didn't know what to do with it. It wasn't AOL or online messaging, a forum, or an email - no one knew what to post, how to post, or where it fit in their understanding of "tech" at the time. I am often an early adopter of tech and made my first account long before my IRL friends; they just didn't know how to work it into their lives or the role it was supposed to play.
What happened, though, was so gradual, organic, and beautiful to watch take shape. Terms like micro-messaging were new and foreign. Suddenly, micro-communities happened, and little pods of people with similar interests found each other and started connecting. Pods found other pods, and people found new connections. Then, this strange little sms-social-media platform became an integral part of our culture and how we connect, get local and global news, and entertainment. It became a blend of communication, messaging, and small-but-real-time blogging.
a screenshot from when Twitter won a Webby Award in 2009, at the time only 3 years old and already experiencing rapid growth
These recent migrations, however, give me the sense that that nostalgic hope we held is gone; the illusion has burst, and people aren't waiting around to see where others land - it's just time to go. More than this, the momentum to leave is not simply within social media platforms, but it's impacting areas in our lives where we've had enough of these companies that care nothing for people and only for profit.
This post is far longer than intended - thx for sticking it out.
It will also be a budding post because these are thoughts I have more to say on, posts I will return to, and ideas to refine further.