Skip to main content

I wonder if #blind and low-vision nerds like me are getting too comfortable in our nerdy social media bubble here on the fediverse. I blithely ignored tiktok from the beginning, and once a lot of us moved from Twitter to the fediverse en masse, I was proud to not be active on any of the corporate-owned social media platforms. But it now seems to me that we're missing out on some important discourse, particularly from other marginalized communities, by staying in our bubble.
#blind

Tamas G reshared this.

in reply to Matt Campbell

Matt Campbell
Matt Campbell
• •
Of course, tiktok, being a video-centric platform, has accessibility issues. But I'm told that it's now passably accessible on iOS. Still, I'm reluctant to use it on its own terms, getting sucked into the engagement-maximizing algorithm.
in reply to Matt Campbell

Talon
Talon
• •
it is a problem. It is too easy to keep scrolling. Just one more video. Just one more. They're long enough to be funny, beautiful, insightful, but short enough to make you think that not much time is passing, one more is fine, it's OK, you can scroll for a little more. I've found so much great music, so many cool people through TikTok, but I've also wasted so much time. It is one of the sharpest double edged social media swords I've encountered so far.
in reply to Matt Campbell

jcsteelguitars
jcsteelguitars
• •
Tiktok has def gotten better but it's not all the way there yet. I remember when I started using it there were a bunch of weirdly layed out tabs at the bottom of the screen, VO wouldn't tell you how many likes a vid has on the like button before you like said vid and I'm sure I'm missing a bunch more stuff, but it's gotten way better than it was.
in reply to Matt Campbell

Jonathan
Jonathan
• •
Meh. You'll get adicted to a peace of crap. Have been using it for almost 4 years now and the advantage was nothing. Uninstalled it now and I'm happy with YT shorts whenever I find time to watch it. TikTok'sperformance is better, and I'm missing some content. But I'm sick of it!
in reply to Matt Campbell

Jason J.G. White
Jason J.G. White
• •
I'll gladly forego the discourse on proprietary social media platforms and choose what to pay attention to, given my limited time and availability. Having no corporate, engagement-driven recommendation algorithm is an advantage. Of course, others are welcome to have different priorities, but I';m entirely in suport of bubbles (let's call them personal quality filters) for those of us who want them. One might say that newsgroups, mailing lists, topic-specific online fora, etc., all create "bubbles" as well.
in reply to Matt Campbell

aaron
aaron
• •
Yes, and it's an issue. A systemic one honestly because a lot of content is short form video e.g Tiktok, or pictures, Instagram. Can't say I'd want to be on either of those platforms, even if they were fully accessible though.
in reply to aaron

MikoΕ‚aj HoΕ‚ysz
MikoΕ‚aj HoΕ‚ysz
• •

@fireborn TBH I was against both Youtube (the content discovery part of it) and TikTok for a long time, but those services learn what kind of videos are accessible to you suprisingly quickly.

On TikTok, it took me about 30 minutes of scrolling through God only knows what, and then it stopped showing me videos that weren't basically just some people talking.

@aaron
in reply to aaron

Matt Campbell
Matt Campbell
• •
@fireborn @miki Well I, for one, am starting to wonder if I should compromise on that type of nerd purity in order to hear more from certain groups of people that are largely absent here on the fediverse. Still not sure how to do that without being sucked into wasting lots of time though.
@MikoΕ‚aj HoΕ‚ysz @aaron
in reply to Matt Campbell

Zvonimir Stanecic
Zvonimir Stanecic
• •
@Tamasg Well, Mainstream has it's own quirks, for example not having api for third-party clients. Mainstream is ableist, especially twitter, when Musk fired the accessibility department altogether.
@Tamas G
in reply to Zvonimir Stanecic

Tamas G
Tamas G
• •
@asael I had similar ponderings after reading it- maybe the reason we cannot go with a "mainstream" platform (and I put that in quotes as the definition of what that is changes so much...) is because we cannot trust that the rug won't be just pulled out from under us. With the bird-site this was quite ugly as at first we lost streaming API, then regular API, and then all 3rd-party clients fell like a domino after.
@Zvonimir Stanecic
in reply to Tamas G

Zvonimir Stanecic
Zvonimir Stanecic
• •
@Tamasg Of course. Mastodon is something really free, where leftist and rightist and any sort of people can communicate freely. In other words, people / humans of all sizes and shapes.
@Tamas G
in reply to Zvonimir Stanecic

Matt Campbell
Matt Campbell
• •
@asael @Tamasg Except that, from what I've read, black people in particular don't seem to feel welcome here.
@Tamas G @Zvonimir Stanecic
in reply to Matt Campbell

Zvonimir Stanecic
Zvonimir Stanecic
• •
@Tamasg That's for the every part of american culture. Americans are all hidden racists. That's what i heard.
@Tamas G
in reply to Zvonimir Stanecic

karolherbst 🐧 πŸ¦€
karolherbst 🐧 πŸ¦€
• •

@asael @Tamasg One major issue I read about often is, that people ask for certain moderation tools, or other features and then others "explain-bro" them on why it's a bad idea.

Though from a more technical pov, there are a lot of tech folks who say "decentralized is the best" and then entirely ignore how that's just making moderation a painful process (which is true, but often denied).

Another concern is, that it's too easy to create an account on the wrong server full of shitty people.

@Tamas G @Zvonimir Stanecic
in reply to Matt Campbell

karolherbst 🐧 πŸ¦€
karolherbst 🐧 πŸ¦€
• •
@asael @Tamasg this thread also got boosted into my timeline today, and I think it's a good read on that matter: hachyderm.io/@mekkaokereke/110…

mekka okereke :verified: (@mekkaokereke@hachyderm.io)

All of the posts on Mastodon about how the Blue Sky team was silly for releasing a social media network in 2023 without blocking and moderation, even in private beta, and that the Blue Sky team should have known what would happen... ...
Hachyderm.io
@Tamas G @Zvonimir Stanecic
in reply to Matt Campbell

Darrell Hilliker πŸ‘¨β€πŸ¦―β™ΎοΈπŸ“‘
Darrell Hilliker πŸ‘¨β€πŸ¦―β™ΎοΈπŸ“‘
• •
Either way, I know I just don't have time for more social media. LinkedIn and Mastodon are quite enough for me.
in reply to Matt Campbell

victor tsaran
victor tsaran
• •
@Tamasg Yep, this is why I am still lurking on Twitter. I think Mastodon never caught on among the big corporates, for better or worse.
@Tamas G
in reply to Matt Campbell

The Evil Chocolate Cookie
The Evil Chocolate Cookie
• •
you don’t wanna be on TikTok. They discriminate. That’s how I lost my account.
⇧