I opened a new account on Mastodon yesterday, ending 60 days without a texty-type social media account.
It's mostly a bit of a perfect storm of sorts, but what it came down to is that one of my goals for 2026 was doing more Linuxy things and Masto has already been quite valuable in that regard. I imagined needing to ask about things here and there and before I knew it... new account!
One thing being away for two months helped show me is that the foregoing culture of Mastodon and Bluesky are quite different, with the latter being where the old "Twitter culture" went (at least to me). Since I was only ever on Twitter (c. 2010-2022) because that's where people were and always hated the culture there, I am sort of working on the assumption that my biggest problem was Bluesky. I guess I'll see!
"Twitter culture?"
From the moment I got my first Twitter account in 2010, I was struck by how angry, arrogant, pithy, or sarcastic people sounded. In the ensuing years, I came to recognize a sort of power play that is communicated in interacting in short and direct statements stripped of any social graces. I've never shaken it and I don't think I should have to, so I've opted out.
January 1, 2026