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Big Social has you, monitoring 24 hours a day all year round. Learn how David Rut land breaks free into his own self-run Fediverse echo-chamber.

OUR EXPERT David Rutland can’t read a commission and still isn’t providing all the details. Perhaps he’d appreciate a Fediverse message listing what’s missing…

Credit: https://soapbox.pub

We don’t think you need to be told that social media – in the form it exists today – is a mess. Users are ruled over by gigantic corporations with their own agenda and unfairly applied rules. They give a voice to absurd people (who you despise), while silencing your own, perfectly reasonable and rational opinions. How very dare they!

Doomscrolling has become a way of life and your social media feeds are optimised to keep you hooked, depressed, angry and engaged as you swipe through an endless stream of misery and outrage.

And don’t forget the Facebook and Twitter tracking widgets scattered across the internet. Every site you visit which has a ‘Facebook’ button reports back to Facebook that you’ve been there, allowing the Zuck and his minions to build a granular picture of your activities, interests, identity and sell adverts based on that.

While the company now known as Meta (for some reason) does offer a tool which it says will prevent it from linking your off-Facebook activity with your Facebook account, we can’t say that we trust them. Social media sites aren’t nice is what we’re saying, and you should avoid them all whenever possible.

Yet there’s a certain joy to be had from interacting with people online in a social media setting (raging political and ideological arguments aside). Joining groups with a common interest is great, and talking in real time to strangers who are into what you’re into is actually fun. Sometimes (and we’re loath to admit this) it’s just nice to scroll through dog (cat–Ed) pics all day.

If you’ve reached this stage, you’ve shown the kind of courage and endurance that should net you a medal at the very least.

With Facebook, Twitter and all of the other predatory data-slurpers a hazard to your health, where are discerning readers going to go when they want to discuss topics raised in the latest issue of Linux Format, pets and fine art?