Mastodon vs. Twitter

[Dani]

I'm not understanding the recent obsession with companies switching their social presence from Twitter to Mastodon. Whatever you think of Elon Musk, how does that affect someone's day to day use of Twitter? Mastodon looks to me, at least at the surface, as just a Twitter clone. What am I missing?

[rproffitt]

The headline I seeing is "Racist, antisemitic tweets quickly spread after Musk Twitter takeover".

Also, the debacle of the verified accounts damaged some companies.
Headline: "Fake Eli Lilly Twitter Account Claims Insulin Is Free, Stock Falls 4.37%"

Mastadon is just what you stated, I wish Mastadon had spent a lot more time on their product name.

[Dani]

The headline I seeing is "Racist, antisemitic tweets quickly spread after Musk Twitter takeover".

I get sensationalized headlines. What I don't get is why people change their daily lives based on sensationalized headlines. The twitter I use today feels exactly the same to me as the twitter I used 6 months ago. I choose the people I wish to follow, the platform recommends relevant content to me (often SEO related, of course), etc. Why do I need to give up my 3000+ followers and switch to a different platform that looks and feels exactly the same?

[Dani]

To explain further, this is very much a rant in that twitter for me feels exactly the same with the exception of a handful of accounts that I follow regularly are now on mastodon, which is inconvenient for me, because it's now yet another platform I need to check daily. I get the need for different social media platforms for different purposes (Facebook vs. LinkedIn, for example), but it's frustrating when the two platforms (twitter and mastodon) are pretty much exactly the same in terms of UI, functionality, target audience, etc., and yet I now need to add both to my daily ritual.

[rproffitt]

The headlines are not only sensational but true. Besides the damage done to Eli Lilly and other companies recently think about car makers. Why would they advertise on Twitter now?

"(Insert company name here) announced it will pause advertising on social media platforms to protest content containing hate speech."

There's free speech and then there's hate speech. It seems clear to me that Twitter has way too much hate speech.

[Dani]

I have no clue who Eli Lilly is nor have I heard any news about car manufacturers on Twitter.

I use Twitter daily to catch up on SEO news and post to my 3000 followers, most who are past or present DaniWeb visitors. My profile, feed, and the UI have remained much the same for me, with no hate speech or anything I would consider unsavory noticeable in my feed, yet I'm now inconvenienced by having to add another social platform to my daily routine, because some of the accounts I follow have jumped ship. And to add insult to injury, that new social platform functions identically to the one I'm already using.

[rproffitt]

The reason I know Eli Lilly and other companies is that we hold stock in ETFs that contain these companies. So I keep up with the news company actions.

As to hate speech it may not be on your feed but it is there. I leave it to groups like https://www.adl.org to report on it as I have better things to do and don't want such in my mail. https://www.adl.org/resources/report/audit-antisemitic-incidents-2021 shows a marked increase in 2021. There's so much more as we look at articles from https://www.google.com/search?&q=twitter+and+hate+speech+2022

[Dani]

No, I get there are news articles about Twitter hate speech. What I don’t get is why soooo many people jump ship and are so quick to boycott when the only way they would know is by reading said news articles. I guess it all comes down to the quote … the road to the holocaust was paved with indifference. Perhaps everyone is more ethical than I am, because I’m not so quick to jump ship when it doesn’t affect me.

[Dani]

Replace ethical with empathetic, I think. I think what it comes down to is my distrust of news sites to accurately report what is happening, especially if I can’t see it for myself. I’m not one to boycott other businesses because of third-party hearsay. I’m also such a proponent of freedom of speech that it’s going to be hard to convince me to boycott a business that provides me with what I consider tangible value, because of antics by one of the investors or owners or someone affiliated with said company.

Walt Disney was an antisemite and racist. It shows in many of his earlier works (eg the crows in Dumbo and a million other overt references). This carries through the company even today. The Disney channel tv shows, and even the movies, try sooo hard to ensure that people of all colors and nationalities are represented. There’s Tiana, the black princess. Jasmine, the Arabic princess. There’s Elena, the Hispanic princess, etc. But there has never been a Jewish Disney princess or Jewish Disney character, either major or minor, across any Disney works. Epcot features many countries of the world, including an entire (and decently vast) Middle East land, with its own food court, but no mention of Israel or Jewish food served there. Even the It’s a Small World ride had every major country and culture represented, but not Israel and no Jewish references.

But that isn’t going to stop me from enjoying myself at Disneyland. Heck, we went there for our honeymoon. Why should I let the personal opinion of one long-dead guy (or even his currently-alive family), who I will never meet, affect my enjoyment of a theme park or watching well-put-together animated movies?

[pritaeas]

What I don’t get is why soooo many people jump ship and are so quick to boycott when the only way they would know is by reading said news articles.

Most people are sheep, they don't think, but only follow.