I've been asking this question to myself a few times now. When I speak with other peers, many are tired of social media. Without any hope for a change?

I remember how different the times were like 20 years ago. Us fellow internet users weren't connected 24/7. We used to be online when we were in front of our desktop or laptop computer. Our ways of communicating happened via instant messaging systems or client-server based chat systems. ICQ, MSN, IRC, Skype, TeamSpeak, Ventrilo or Mumble were systems that were widely used. Plus we had forums. 



Do you remember ICQ?


It was really a hype, something new to explore, exciting and more like a wild, wild west. However the Internet became more and more commercialised. And with many years passing by, social interactions have been taking place on a few big player networks, like Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Reddit, Twitter, etc.



Forums were one way to organize communities


As a result of the recent shifts, I, personally, experienced some tiredness in socializing. The Internet drove us more away from each other, and this is also a shift that I feel takes place in real life as well. Of course, the internet and real life have become more interwined and there is definitely a correlation between these phenomena. 



Mumble was one of the popular VoIP systems


Bubbles have emerged, hatespeech, plenty of ads, misinformation, et cetera. Bad news, controversial content and ragebait are things that bring plenty of financial revenue. Has the internet not become a giant capitalistic market place? Do we go online to entertain ourselves? Or do we go online merely as a consumer, a customer, to be spoonfed with marketing ads, while also getting flooded with news how bad everything is, that the world is practically doomed? And it only gets worse with the rise of AI generated rage/click-bait content across all social media platforms.

This is not the Internet of the past. Nor is it the Internet as it should be. 



Source: World Happiness Report


When I got my attention to Mastodon and the Fediverse, I believed this could be a way to get the exit on a highly commercialised highway that will eventually lead to a dead internet. See, Instagram and other social networks are currently a cash cow that is milked till oblivion. Enshittification is taking place on every aspect of the popular internet. It's not only social media that is affected. Take Google Play as an example. They are essentially abusing their power, hurting developers all around the globe. I don't want to dig too deep into the reality of Enshittification in this post, but if you want to know more, please see this Wikipedia article.

Back to social media. Mastodon and other systems of the fediverse are great. No doubt, they have the power to better at least one portion of the Internet. I used to be registered on Mastodon for quite a while and at first it was an almost entirely great experience, with a few exceptions. That was a massive Yay, Mastodon ^_^, as my personal experience with Twitter (which I left for a while now) and Instagram, as well as other big tech platforms, have become utterly negative. So, Mastodon appeared as a light in the dark, given it is open-sourced software and doesn't patronize your feed. However after a while I realized that people just post into the void. Everyone has something to say or promote, yet no one wants to listen. It's like we're all having our booth on a crowded public space, but there are no actual recievers. I left mastodon after a while and moved to Bluesky. But it's just the same. It's the same everywhere.

Thus I concluded that people overall are tired of socializing. Which is fine, and honestly, I admit that this is the case for me, too. At this point, I don't even know if I would want to connect with others that much. I, personally, merely go online, post some dev things, and then move on to something else. On the other hand, getting into a great community of developers, supporting each other and exchanging information, progress or simply chatting, is something I miss. Yet I don't really pursue a change here. I'm simply tired of social media - and people. 

And from what I see from others, I'm definitely not alone.