Mastodon The New Twitter

Mastodon The New Twitter Photo Via: https://assets.mastodon.social At this point, there are very few individuals that aren’t familiar with Twitter. It’s used weekly on “The Tonight Show,” daily by our President (unfortunately), and every time there’s a break in your class schedule (or if you just aren’t feeling that history class today). The social media network quickly worked its way to the top, now perhaps bigger than ever. But bigger isn’t always better. At least, that’s what Eugen Rochko believes. In the past few years, Twitter has limited third-party app growth, which Rochko (as well as many others) took issue with. So instead, he built a new social media platform with more freedom. He created Mastodon, which is still basically Twitter, but there are notable differences as well. Posts on Mastodon can be 500 characters (as opposed to the 140 on Twitter) and individual posts can be made private. Mastodon launched six months ago, but it’s already causing some major changes in the way social media works. For instance, last week, Twitter updated its display, which confused many of its users. Overnight, thousands of ex-Twitter … ers … switched over to Mastodon. Within a two-day timespan, Mastodon has grown almost 75 percent to just over 40,000 users (this is a great accomplishment as the initial six months only drew in 24,000 users). And between these 40,000 users, a total of about 1 million posts have gone live. For a social media site just beginning, this is a promising statistic, even if it’s coming several months after the site’s beginning. While this is a potential problem for the servers, Rochko is all over this. He shut down new sign-ups to the site “until quality of service can be assured for existing users.” This is a new way of running social media: placing value on the individual over the company’s growth. While it’s a risky move, it’s likely going to create much stronger brand relationships over time. According to Rochko, “I brought all my friends to Twitter back in the day. I kept promoting it to everybody I knew. I really loved the service. But it continuously made decisions that I didn’t like. So, in the end, I decided that maybe Twitter itself is not the way to go forward.” Of course, he isn’t the only person to have these thoughts. And he certainly isn’t the first person to act on them. Back in July of 2012, Dalton Caldwell created App.net in opposition to Twitter (a site that Rochko had also joined for similar reasons). According to Rochko, “I’m not doing this to get rich, I’m doing this because I think it’s right. I only want to be able to pay my rent and insurance.” And it’s safe to say this probably won’t last, so that’s probably a good thing for Rochko. New sites such as this one have a hard time getting up and running, so it’s more than likely Mastodon isn’t going to be around for very long. But even so, its point has been made, and only time will tell if Twitter is willing to take the criticism to make itself better. In the past, all Twitter competitors really haven’t lasted it’s very hard to take down a name like that. Think about taking down Facebook and what that would entail it feels near impossible. But perhaps that’s why there’s a bit of an explosion in users we don’t want to miss out, just in case this is the one that does it. Just in case this is the next Twitter. The better Twitter. Or, at the very least, maybe this is the site that makes Twitter bigger and better than ever. Of course, over time, we’ve all fallen in love with our favorite social media brands; whether its Facebook or Twitter or Instagram or Snapchat, they’ve become a part of our everyday lives, whether we want to admit it or not. No matter what, we always seem to have a smartphone on us, and more often than not, we’re using it. Social media is growing and over just a short period of time, and technology is evolving with it. Think about the days of Myspace that wasn’t all that long ago, and still, Facebook has completely taken over and Myspace is nothing but a memory we’ve long since forgotten. So next time you’re procrastinating a major homework assignment or trying to avoid spending time with your roommate, take a look at Mastodon and join in on the rebellion, even if it isn’t going to last long (or even if it does really, it’s a win-win). And really, it’s only a matter of time before the next big social media outlet takes us by storm, so be on the lookout for that as well. Who knows? Maybe Mastodon is it. You never know when you could be missing out!