Is anyone using Mastodon as their primary social media and is it working for you?

[0x00string@infosec.exchange]

@LianaBrooks yes

[5teverin0@toot.community]

@LianaBrooks Before I found the Fediverse, I had never been a social media user (save Reddit) – no Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat, no nuthin'. Mastodon, and later Pixelfed and Lemmy, turned out to be everything I wanted social media to be, and nothing that kept me away from the others. Mastodon is my main social media, and it works great for me, and federation makes it easy to follow all kinds of accounts.

[eryops@dice.camp]

@LianaBrooks Yes, this is the only social media account I have, and there are lots of cats.

[jrdepriest@infosec.exchange]

@LianaBrooks

Yes.

I started by joining a thriving instance and watching the Local and Federated feeds.

Then I started following hashtags.

Then I found people posting things I liked and started following people.

It took time, months, but I have a very active feed and about two dozen Lists for when I just want to see a certain type of Toot.

Things I miss:

• The artists I followed on Instagram. I'm now supporting two of them via Patreon or Liberapay because they also post here.
• The onslaught of dank memes.

[raphaelmorgan@disabled.social]

@LianaBrooks yes, and kind of. It helps with my social needs more than any other platform* has, and my mental health is a lot less negatively impacted by it than it was when my primary social media was Instagram, Tumblr, TikTok, or Twitter. But when it comes to organization, it's difficult to get involved with a lot of local projects/organizations, because there's exactly one that I know of that posts on the fediverse and for staying in touch with people I meet in person, it rarely works

[mage_of_chaos@mastodon.social]

@LianaBrooks

Yes it is I!

And yes, it's sorta working for me.

But I wish I had friends talking to me AND with me.

[raphaelmorgan@disabled.social]

@LianaBrooks all of these problems could be solved by more leftists making an effort to get away from big tech, so it's not the software itself that makes it not fully work for me. I blame Zuck

*I'm answering as if you said the fediverse, because in this case I don't feel it's worth distinguishing the social networking I get from Mastodon, GTS, Misskey, etc from each other. Technically Mastodon is still my main social media though

[colorblindcowboy@mastodon.art]

@LianaBrooks

Yes & yes

[bigg@mastodon.africa]

@LianaBrooks I am. Works we'll in my view.

[mrkesu@snabelen.no]

@LianaBrooks You probably won't get replies from many people who's not using it as their primary, for logical reasons.

[oregon_pacifist@retro-gaiden.com]

@LianaBrooks yes, and yes

[raginghungrypanda@mastodon.keyboardvagabond.com]

@LianaBrooks I use lemmy/piefed as my primary, but I was never a huge twitter user either, so I'm not really the best at finding and doing things on mastodon. It works, though, I'll sometimes post on piefed using hashtags that show up on mastodon, or tag communities in a post. So, I use it, but it's secondary

[wobintosh@chaos.social]

@LianaBrooks Yes, it is.

[oldperl@mastodon.online]

@LianaBrooks yes, yes.

[faraiwe@mstdn.social]

@LianaBrooks mosdefs

[nikhil@social.dezinezync.com]

@LianaBrooks Yes, for myself, and update and informational accounts for all of my apps and software. Read-only or deactivated from X.

[stefan@gardenstate.social]

@LianaBrooks this format of social media does work best for me.

[jmvars@mastodon.social]

@LianaBrooks Yes and it is whatever. This is the least mental place and people seem able to have discussions without it resorting to yelling at each other.

This is the closest I can get to the old school social media scrolling where I can find cool, wholesome, or silly stuff without constantly being bombarded with politics, vitriol and hatred.

I am just tired of social media if I am being honest, I have halfway gotten off everything, deleted my main accounts but keeping throwaways around.

[c_dan4th@mstdn.social]

@LianaBrooks Mastodon and Strava. Gave up the rest three+ years ago

[charliemchenry@connectop.us]

@LianaBrooks absolutely YES, on both counts. Fled the birdsite 3 years ago to mastodon.lol, and when the admin folded that instance in a snit, I was actually approached and invited to join my current instance - the admin even helped with the housekeeping. How cool is that? And the engagement on the fediverse is active, genuine and enjoyable. I have one-third the followers I had on Twitter, and three times the engagement. I’ve encountered a few honest conservatives, very few, and no nazis while here.