Is our time doing bird about to end?

Everyone else has produced their hot take on Twitter, Mastodon and Social Media in general. Well, here’s mine. It’s lukewarm because I was in Chicago. A fact that may have passed you by because I only tweeted 234552 pictures while I was there.

Twitter has been a significant part of my life for many years. I’m better informed for being there, have made new friends both virtually and in real life (and what lovely people they are), and had a few tweets go semi-viral - one about death and reflection that led to an interview on the Jeremy Vine radio show, a couple into a guide written by a High Court Judge and one where I quote tweeted Senator Ted Cruz. Many life goals ticked off the list.

My current account is a decade old at Christmas. I had one before that for a few years which was mainly receive rather than transmit. @ishkolhatkar started life as @bptc_lecturer when, as the name suggests, was because of my role as a trapeze artist in The Neasden State Circus. The original concept was to tweet a bit about law and legal education; helping students who sent me emails and messages by explaining the process of becoming a Barrister and the various stages hoops one has to leap through. It was conceived as an alternative to a blog. Twitter was once (and perhaps still is) seen as a micro blogging site. I had started a couple of blogs before but struggled to sustain any momentum in posting regularly. This site is supposed to be updated regularly but it’s now two years old and has far less content than it was supposed to. In part, it’s because Twitter is so easy to use. I can fire off half a dozen tweets in a thread with a bit of commentary and there’s a far greater chance of my content being consumed. I’m acutely aware that had I condensed this post into ten tweets, it would be read by more people; in part because it would be shorter but also because the barrier to entry would be lower - you had to click on a link to read this. You clicked on the link knowing it would be longer than reading some tweets.

I had a small following at first. More lawyers started to join Twitter and tweet about the law. They had the great advantage over me in that they actually knew something about the law so their content, rightly, was more interesting than mine and gained greater interaction. Remembering that a safe approach is to stick to what you know, I started to tweet photographs of my food and reply to tweets with puns. Gradually adding more puns until I achieved the right balance - someone suggesting biweekly that I delete my account.

Twitter has changed over the years. People come and people go. The site itself has changed both in terms of functionality and look & feel. But undoubtedly, the new regime has caused more concern than any previous change. Notably too, people are looking at alternatives and one that’s mentioned more than most is Mastodon. Should you move? Well, might I be so bold to suggest that there’s a question you should ask yourself instead, one that I do on a regular basis but is particularly useful at this juncture.

What do I use social media for?

I had a Facebook account from about as early as they were generally available. In fact, I had two. One public and one private. I used the private one to share pictures and communicate with friends - the takes were hotter than a train station coffee. The public one was anodyne. Designed to be found so that people I didn’t know well would find it and not go looking for the other one. Here, the content was milder than grilled chicken breast served to me on my recent flight to Chicago - flavour had not visited that meal. Both were deleted in the summer of 2019 as I realised that I wasn’t posting anything unique on either. The content had become re-posts of text and images I had posted elsewhere. I told people on my private site that I was going, not to get them to convince me to stay (side note, nobody did) but to ask if anyone didn’t have an alternative way of contacting me, but wanted to stay in contact. Three people sent me their number and I added them on WhatsApp. Then closed both Facebook accounts.

Here’s how I use social media. The word Yes in red indicates the primary site or sites for the corresponding characteristic.

Much of this speaks for itself. It might surprise you (or not if you’ve heard me bang on about it) that I use Twitter to read the views of people I’m unlikely to agree with and I’m prepared to let those views make me cross. I see it as an advantage of the platform. But I readily accept that it’s not what everyone wants. I deliberately follow people whose views don’t align with mine so I can read what they say. So that in turn I can understand the message being broadcast to those who share their views. There’s a threshold of course; I don’t follow those who tweet’s cross over the line into illegality or serious harm. I also have a nonsense threshold. Tip over that and I’ll unfollow and possibly mute.

I’m also quite prepared for people’s comments on my output. While puns elicit groans, my food posts aren’t universally enjoyed and nor do I expect them to be. People telling me that my food doesn’t look nice, or I’ve not cooked it properly and/or to their liking - that is the cost of a dopamine hit of someone else clicking ‘like’.

I’ve learned, slowly and with some mistakes, that you don’t have to swing at every pitch. Gone are the days of believing I have to reply to everyone who replies to me. Or justify my actions. If you don’t like my output, the remedy really is in your hands in the shape of the unfollow button.

But this isn’t for everyone and I don’t say that as a criticism.

It’s not for me, so how might I use Twitter or social media, differently?

Twitter’s private function has existed for years. Other platforms have the same. My Instagram account is private so that I can have full control over who sees photos of my children. Yes, I’m acutely aware that photographs can be screenshot and reposted elsewhere, but that’s true of any online medium. Back to Twitter, more recent enhancements that prevent who can reply, can be useful where you want to limit commentary. Choosing to only to be notified of replies where you follow someone can change the user experience to better fit what you’d like to see. Muting words and phrases (the ‘Platty Jubes’ function) can further change your twitter dynamic. As can muting and blocking.

All of this comes at a cost. First, your time and energy. It may be that you don’t want to invest as much time in tidying your Twitter as you do reading it. Second, it means that you’ll miss some content and interactions that you would like to see.

Isn’t Mastodon the answer?

Maybe. I’m sorry if you’ve read this far hoping for a definitive answer. There are questions about you wanting a definitive answer from me on anything, but we’ll save those for another day.

You’ve probably read more about Mastodon in the last few days than you have previously in total. How does it differ from Twitter? Well, in short, unlike Twitter which is one big pipeline of content that you can curate by following, muting and blocking, Mastodon has hundreds of pipelines. You’ll see everything in the pipeline (server) that you pick, but you can also choose to see content from people who are in other pipelines if you seek them out. Potentially the best of both worlds.

In the positive column I can see:

1. It’s not Twitter - the importance of this point remains to be clarified depending on how the Bird Site changes

2. Mastodon’s federated servers will (in theory) allow you to join a community that is generally moderated in a way that aligns with your views. This means on joining you have an instant feed that should be to your taste. You can still follow people on other servers to enhance what is already on yours.

3. Anyone can start a server and moderate it. So long as it fits within Mastodon’s overall regulations, you could impose the rules that you choose

On the other hand:

1. It’s still in its infancy and servers are run by anyone from well organised groups to enthusiastic individuals. Read about Masterdon this weekend and confused by the explanations of how it works? Mine included? You aren’t alone. I like tech and yet on first reading, the idea that you could flugle your pips on any funkle of your choice but still able to bungle your favourite boops into your quarg, left me as confused as the time I was on a webinar and they switched to speaking Swedish.

2. The UI/UX (user interface / user experience) is also still in its infancy. If you’ve tried it out, you’ll see that it’s not as slick as Twitter. With good reason, the platform is no where near as mature and it’s users to date have probably been both quite tech savvy and a little more forgiving.

3. We're probably a few weeks away from decent guidance and help. Google ‘How do I change Masterdon server’ and you’ll see a few articles that explain either that if you reverse bungle your funkle, then import your jibberjabber, all will be fine. Or others that say the way to change server is to ‘change server’ then keep using the platform. Neither is helpful to the average user.

4. Servers cost time and money to run. The largest ‘plug and play’ server has paused new accounts due to sudden interest. You can still set one up yourself but it’s quite an investment in time and money to do so, and that’s before we get to the level of responsibility in the constant attention it will take. Not just technically, but the moderation policy. The cost can be mitigated by asking for donations but that too takes time and effort. Plus people might choose not to contribute. You could resort to adverts but again, aside from the time and energy in managing those, I suspect people will find another server if you do.

5. Moderation policies can change at the drop of a hat. If your chosen server decides (perhaps due to a benevolent benefactor) to change their policy, will you go to the effort of changing server. Sure, in time that might become simple, but right now, it’s a pain. To become simple it requires people writing code to support the process. Will they? Should they? Does it require someone buying Masterdon to make it happen?

6. Choosing a server in the first place is difficult. Right now, there aren’t many so deciding which one is a bit of a gamble. Despite the idea that you can choose which ones suits you best, the ‘follower effect’ is notable. A tweeter with hundreds of thousands of followers has caused a spike in applications (yes, you can ask people to apply to be on your server) to a particular server, such that this afternoon you couldn’t log into it on the Masterdon iOS app and it crashed on the web.

7. It’s an investment in your time to find new people to follow and be followed by.

Time will tell whether these are minor or major bumps in the road. Equally, will the fear of change on Twitter be worse than the changes themselves.

Before I go, a final note on Blue Tick, Blue funk. I appreciate that views on whether Twitter should charge $8 per month for a blue tick (yes yes, it’s a white tick on a blue background) differ and perhaps depending on whether you have one or not. My comment is that it isn’t and has never been solely a verification service. Sure, those with a tick have their identity verified in some way, but there are anonymous verified accounts where I am pretty sure Twitter doesn’t know their actual identity. Equally, verification was only ever half the equation. You have to meet Twitter’s criteria to be verified. Those used to be opaque, but are now explicit. Even with explicit criteria there are accounts that don’t meet the new criteria. Maybe Twitter has a general discretion that they use? Maybe Twitter allows people to be verified for activity that isn’t clear on the face of the account in question but would otherwise qualify? Moreover, the assumption that a paid for Blue Tick service would allow impersonation is just that, an assumption. All we know for now is that ticks will cost money.

We live in interesting times - well, depending on how you’ve curated your feed.

Liked this? You maybe interested in my video on defining your social media presence - click here

Rejected titles for this blog post include: Chirpy Chirpy Tweet Tweet. The elephant in the room that it happened. Nate Dogg and Warren G had to federate.