Recently I ended a long relationship with Twitter, and I'm relieved.
For over 10 years I've written to a platform for which the experience, safety, and justice of users is irrelevant. For reasons well understood, people can't stop using it and arguing about how to use it. This is a product that never improves, that defends harmful content, and makes people unhappy. But there is money in it. A lot of money. In fact, their entire business depends on users but they never listen to them. I knew it wasn't good for me but I couldn't stop either.
When a new wave of federated social networks (or "fediverse") spearheaded by Mastodon solidified itself, I saw my chance to be someone who could live a better life online. Because I know the platform I'm contributing to won't be actively destroying other people's lives. Unlike Twitter, Mastodon instances are built and moderated by users for users without business incentives which makes them better in every way.
So as of today, I will no longer update my Twitter account. It's going to be hard and I might have regrets which means I won't delete my account yet. Instead, I've set up a cross-posting bridge from my English Mastodon account to Twitter. Don't bother replying to me because I won't be logging in to check my mentions anymore.
If you're interested in my content, here's a list of social accounts I'm still active in addition to this blog:
- DEV.to for my longer posts of which most appear on this blog as well.
- Instagram for all the photos I take until I figure out a better place to host them.
- Fosstodon for my short posts in English.
- mastodontti.fi for my short posts in Finnish.
I'm also on Facebook and LinkedIn. However, those accounts are more restricted, so if I have no idea who you are I'm going to decline your request. I welcome you to follow me on the sites above because I'm certain my best content is still ahead of me.
Yours Sincerely,
Niko Heikkilä
P.S. This is not as dramatic a decision as it reads. I'm only channeling my inner Don Draper.
Cover photo by Jason Blackeye on Unsplash