a few things I’ve noticed when trying to tell people on Facebook/twitter about fedi

1. General ignorance
2. social inertia
3. anxiety of choice
4. Low payoff

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1. General Ignorance, as to what the fediverse is, how it works, why it’s better than corporate media.

Often when I recommend fedi to people on FB, they will assume it’s just another twitter/facebook, they think mastodon is just another private company, and so you have to explain that to them, no, it’s not a corporation, anyone can start an instance. Even coop loving anarchists have trouble grasping this. Most normies don’t even know what FOSS is or why it’s good, many people, especially and ironically leftists, are hostile to even the idea of privacy “what’s the point, the government already knows everything.”

This general ignorance is made worse by the fact that private companies have advertising campaigns that allow their private platforms to fill niches that FOSS would otherwise fille ( see the success of Xoom or Discord in recent years ) Many people, especially ironically leftists, are also under the impression that facebook will last forever, and no new platforms could ever become socially relevant, which is rediculous.

2. Social inertia, unwillingness to try new things,

This is especially true of melenials, Gen X, not to mention boomers, they don’t want to learn something new, they’re obsessed with ‘convenience’ and will say things like 'no one has time to set up a new account" ( I work in customer service, motherfuckers will spend 12 hours on the phone getting a free netflix )

They have their groups, they’re friend circle, their uploaded photos, archived conversations, they’re attached to facebook or twitter and don’t want to leave, the algorithm on facebook is especially effective at making people emotionally dependent. Especially Ironically leftists are very tied to the idea that leftbook is their connection to the masses and that outside of that they’d be isolated – this is when almost all leftbook groups are private, they are constantly being archived, they’re not publicly accessible, and are mostly full of sectarian shit talking. They’re not reaching the masses, they’re contained in an echochamber.

I think gen z are not so attached to web 2.0 but they are susceptable to new corporate platforms that start the cycle over again.

3. Anxiety of Choice: Which platform/ instance do I choose?

This is something I’ve struggled with personally, like finding good instances has literally taken me years, maybe now it’s easier to find one, but even then things could change, like at first I was on diaspora and that just fizzled out. There’s also problem with large instances having little or no registration, whereas a corporate platform will always be open.

4. Low Payoff, what’s the point, I don’t know anyone here.

This is a vicious cycle where there’s not many people on the platform, so if you go on mastodon, you’re unlikely to find people you already know or a large community with people who share your interests. So many people create an account, get bored, and leave to never come back.

With mastodon in particular, it’s full of Furries and anti-semtites and programmers!!! and everyone hates nerds and weeboos.