There is a definite learning curve and you are right Dr. Briant that "leaving" Twitter is difficult. It is like leaving the scene of the most interesting and widely distributed crime scene in history when you are a witness and participant. However, as a back-up plan if Twitter goes full Hellscape Mastodon does work and you can make a Twitter-like bio. Learning the Mastodon rubrics is taking some time. It took me a while to find my friend Glen, but we did it together. I also just found and followed you. I am hosted on an Irish instance just poking around. One of the first things I learned is that promoters of the concept want you to set up your new accounts on smaller or mid-sized instances. The size of the instance does not determine the scope of your network. As I understand it, the design distributes computing and increases network resilience in a manner that comports with distributed computing philosophy. In essence it gets harder to go all Elon Musk if we do social media in a fully distributed rather than centralized manner. It is a pretty cool idea congruent with 20+ year-old ideas about digital citizenship. I am here: https://mastodon.ie/web/@stu. On Sun, Nov 6, 2022 at 4:36 AM Dr. Emma Briant via Air-L < air-l@listserv.aoir.org> wrote:
Dear all,
I wanted to highlight an issue to the community if I may relating to our transition to Mastodon, which I think could have implications for diverse and emerging scholar expertise. Of course Mastodon isn’t a replacement Twitter, it operates differently, but it may well replace it in the daily lives of many of us.
Twitter has helped many previously obscure scholars, experts and scientists to get their voices out in a way previously not possible. I’m a little worried the way Mastodon works may not enable visibility as easily for those who aren’t already *known* in the same way, and potentially, in this aspect, more readily reproduce inequality.
https://twitter.com/emmalbriant/status/1589170894303551488?s=46&t=GuaOniF5Nw... https://mastodon.online/@emmalbriant/109295686807615811 The issue is when people follow… in notifications Mastodon doesn’t seem to show follower bios like it does in Twitter. An apparently small thing, but I think it has important implications as I try to explain in the thread.
Grateful for your thoughts. Emma -- Dr Emma L Briant
Owner: Maven of Persuasion LLC Fellow at Central European University's Center for Media, Data and Society Associate at University of Cambridge, Center for Financial Reporting & Accountability Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/emmalbriant Website: www.emma-briant.co.uk
Author of: *Propaganda and Counter-Terrorism: Strategies for Global Change *from Manchester University Press Co-Author of: *Bad News for Refugees* with Prof. Greg Philo and Dr. Pauline Donald from Pluto Press. Sign up for my Newsletter <http://emma-briant.co.uk/sign-up-for-important-updates/>! Follow me on Twitter @emmalbriant
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