Today, social media websites are owned and operated by a handful of billionaires vying for your attention so they can advertise to you. The Fediverse is the antithesis of these legacy social media sites and might be our only shot at a better future for the social web. In this post, I'll dive into what the Fediverse is and what I think it means for the future of the social web.
What is the Fediverse?
Defining the Fediverse is, honestly, a little tricky. My understanding is that it is a series of interconnected apps, servers, and websites. There are lots of services for interacting with the Fediverse, including Mastodon, WordPress, Peertube, Pixelfed and even Threads. (This is definitely not an exhaustive list, so if I've left out an important one, let me know.)
When you have an account with one of the services listed above and share some content, other people on any of the other services can potentially see and interact with your posts, photos, etc. I personally mostly use Mastodon. You can check out my profile here.
How does it work?
The Fediverse is powered by an open protocol called ActivityPub. I'll not dig into exactly what that means, but behind the scenes, this is the specification that defines how one server communicates with another. The Fediverse doesn't run on any singular server, it is decentralized. Depending on the service, this means that if you don't like the server that your account is hosted on, you can move.
That might sound complicated, but it is a concept you are probably already familiar with. This is exactly how email works. You might have your email hosted with Gmail, but you can still email people who host their email with Outlook. If you don't like Gmail, you could move somewhere else. The Fediverse works the same way.
Why does it matter?
I think the Fediverse is one of the most important movements on the web in the last 10 or more years. Right now, most social media is a walled garden stuffed full of ads. If you post something on Twitter, your friends on Facebook won't see it. Worse than that, Twitter and Facebook are gathering huge amounts of data about you that they can then sell to advertisers. That might not matter to you, but I'd rather have the apps and services I use operated for my benefit.
As I mentioned, the Fediverse isn't one thing. You can find a service or server that works best for you and that matches your values. Most services are free to use and are operated by volunteers. I make a monthly donation to the server that hosts my account, but you don't need to do that.
On the Fediverse, I am in control of my data. My timeline isn't powered by an algorithm, and I only see content from people I follow. It's honestly kind of boring, which is exactly what I want. I spent 20 minutes or so per day catching up, then I put it down and don't think about it again.
How to get started
There are so many ways to create an account on the Fediverse. It can be a little overwhelming. My recommendation is to head to https://mastodon.social/ and sign up there. Spend a few days (or as long as you want) exploring, and then move to another server if you want.
Also, reach out to me if you want help or have questions. I'm not an expert in this stuff, but it is by far the most pleasant relationship I have ever had with social media, and I'd love to see you all there.