Was thinking reflecting yesterday, and this is exactly why I can’t get on board with Twitter, Tumblr, or even really Mastodon. Feels like I’m hunting for personalities rather than interests.
If I may be so bold, I think what you might be bristled by (because I share these feelings) is the notion of “parasocial relationships.” I learned that term pretty recently and it helped me put a label on some of the things I observe and feel in and about the social networking world.
I have had really nice “personal” interactions on Reddit, but I don’t know those individuals, who they are, what they like, or even their names. On Twitter and Instagram and TikTok it’s all about creating a personal “brand” and people following that identity. That’s parasocial. You still don’t know them, but you kind of think you do.
The other extreme is people adding 20-odd tags to a post. If I could filter out posts with more than a given number of tags (5 or 6 would be about right), I would.
I’ve gotten this suggestion too but honestly it made mastodon a horrible experience for me. I’d get personal emotional comments from every random John about a subject, often barely relevant too because they’d just tag literally dozen(s) of hashtags in their every post. I had to start ignoring people one by one but it’s just not feasible when its one of the more popular tags, they kept coming and coming.
Was thinking reflecting yesterday, and this is exactly why I can’t get on board with Twitter, Tumblr, or even really Mastodon. Feels like I’m hunting for personalities rather than interests.
If I may be so bold, I think what you might be bristled by (because I share these feelings) is the notion of “parasocial relationships.” I learned that term pretty recently and it helped me put a label on some of the things I observe and feel in and about the social networking world.
I have had really nice “personal” interactions on Reddit, but I don’t know those individuals, who they are, what they like, or even their names. On Twitter and Instagram and TikTok it’s all about creating a personal “brand” and people following that identity. That’s parasocial. You still don’t know them, but you kind of think you do.
I think I prefer the former.
Thanks for this, I think you nailed it.
On Mastodon I follow hashtags more than individual people.
That’s fair enough. Have seen the same behavior on tumblr and the like.
I’ve found myself wondering if folks aren’t slapping on innappropriate tags or none at all, losing out on content?
I suppose I also never gave this approach an honest shot. Thinking I’ll try this. Thanks!
The other extreme is people adding 20-odd tags to a post. If I could filter out posts with more than a given number of tags (5 or 6 would be about right), I would.
I’ve gotten this suggestion too but honestly it made mastodon a horrible experience for me. I’d get personal emotional comments from every random John about a subject, often barely relevant too because they’d just tag literally dozen(s) of hashtags in their every post. I had to start ignoring people one by one but it’s just not feasible when its one of the more popular tags, they kept coming and coming.
A combination of follow hashtags, filter words and block people works quite well for Mastodon.
That’s what I’ve been doing, but it’s just not the same