Looking for focused alternatives to Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, etc Not just for myself but for my family members and friends who I wish to keep in touch with… any other threads going on about this? Maybe have a general thread and subsequent migration movements, we really need to act on this social life fascist monopoly we’ve became hostages to…
90% of these apps are doing nothing good for you. You don’t need to replace them, you need to quit them and start touching grass. I’m also talking to myself here.
Talking all day to people you never see physically is damaging your brain.
Touch grass? It’s -20C/-4F and there is snow outside :-(
To touch grass I open https://quwhack.itch.io/touch-grass-simulator
Ah, then it’s obviously take all of your clothes off and go roll around in the snow
Touch that frozen grass then :)
I think you’re right but my only issue is permanently loosing contact with old friends from different countries… If there’s a change of phone numbers then I might not be able to contact them ever again…
Sure but not what OP asked about
Not what OP asked, but what OP needed to hear.
There are lots of Fediverse alternatives to social media, including Lemmy (which I guess you know about?) and the ones people have mentioned here already (Mastodon, Pixelfed, Loops, PeerTube). The advantage of the Fediverse is that it can’t be co-opted by a single bad actor, in the way that Musk took over Twitter and made it into a Nazi bar.
RedNote
😂
Why flock anywhere? Lemmy is the extent of my social media sine the reddit API changes.
You don’t need social media.
Remember… when you’re killing time it’s killing you back.
I have wasted time, and now doth time waste me
Fucking awesome quote. I’m going to keep that one in my back pocket.
Being productive is an effective way to waste one’s life.
Maximize wasting time. None of your or almost anyone’s works will be remembered.
Everything in moderation. Including moderation.
US Postal Service
Facebook is a bad idea. All of those that link back to your real identity seem to get so bad so fast. I have never had one and just text people, email them, visit them in person. I don’t need everyone to know everything all the time and can’t understand why anyone does.
You’re already here.
Yeah and I love it but this is still very tech niche and looking for an instant messaging solution. I don’t want to become a pariah socially isolated in regards to my friends and family…
For friends and family I use my phone’s IM. For total strangers on lemmy I just use Reply.
Yeah and I love it but this is still very tech niche and looking for an instant messaging solution.
Facebook: Delete it. Not necessary. I’ve had a happy and fulfilling life without ever going near that misery pit.
Instagram: This is just Facebook again.
WhatsApp: just learn or invent a coded language and use it to talk to family and friends.
Are you saying WhatsApp’s e2e encryption is not really it?
as used, the word ‘Fascism’ is almost entirely meaningless. In conversation, of course, it is used even more wildly than in print. I have heard it applied to farmers, shopkeepers, Social Credit, corporal punishment, fox-hunting, bull-fighting, the 1922 Committee, the 1941 Committee, Kipling, Gandhi, Chiang Kai-Shek, homosexuality, Priestley’s broadcasts, Youth Hostels, astrology, women, dogs and I do not know what else.
George Orwell, 1944
Yeah the dudes slinging nazi salutes def aren’t fascist my guy
Just adding a bit of helpful context.
No you aren’t
Mundane abuse of the word “fascist” is pretty boring, admittedly, but I’m always ready to call it out.
Continue your bad faith, head in the sand vigil you dumb piece of shit.
It sounds like you’re interested after all. The full essay is here. 3 minute read.
Author was possibly the most famous ever democratic socialist, so a pretty credible source.
There are some interesting ones that have already been mentioned here. But just be aware that they’re ghost towns, when compared to the networks they’d be leaving. Their fav creators probably aren’t on them, and neither are most of their friends or family.
They have a chicken and egg problem where people aren’t on them because people aren’t yet on them.
I describe to friends as “internet rural life”: things go slower, for now.
That’s how all these things started though. People at church over 50/60 are asking me about bluesky. That’s a good sign for me.
I’d argue that in some ways they are more active. Posting on Reddit was like farting in a hurricane.
In Lemmy there seems to be more interaction. You don’t have to get a million up votes for anyone to see your post.
That’s true. It’s very often I’ll get actual replies to things I contribute, which is cool!
I think a lot of the ghost town effect is because other platforms focused on superficial things you don’t really see much here. Big sparkly notifs when you get an updoot and meta-currencies and that sort of thing.
I don’t get a lot of upvotes on stuff, which sometimes gives the impression nobody’s seen it. Furthermore, I find if I respond to something posted older than a few days or a week? That convo is dead. Haha.
Facebook: Friendica
instagram: Pixelfed
Whatsapp: Signal,MatrixWhatsApp -> Simplex
I recommend Simplex over signal because its not tied to your phone number and has no identifiers.
The first messenger without user IDs
Though I agree with it being a good recommendation, Signal is BY FAR easier to set up and have people use. I think that’s what will help adoption.
Discoverability is the issue. It is one of the main reasons Signal sticks with phone numbers.
Everyone in my contact list is a potential Signal contact. That’s useful. Chat is still private.
If I want secret chats, I use Simplex.
But simplex seemed just as easy as signal to set up?
Pretty much the same in use IIRC.
There’s a lot of decent Chinese alternatives, there’s a lot of decent fediverse alternatives, but other than that I’m not very sure
If all you want is a place to get memes, hello, you’re in the least bad place on the internet, the indie web/fediverse.
But to keep in touch with family members and friends, who are likely not techy people?
… I guess you could get them on Signal?
I mostly talk to my folks through Telegram, but that’s as far as I could take them (still consider it a win over using WhatsApp, because Telegram might be full of fascists but at least has an open API and a competent Linux client)
Consult privacyguides.org for guidance regarding new messaging and email solutions. I imagine you’ll probably want to ask your family to sign up for signal.
The only alternative to social media is the fediverse. The bad news is that the fediverse is not private. The good news is that frankly social media as a concept just isn’t mandatory, so if nobody signs up, you can just keep in contact with your friend and family using signal.
