A Beginner’s Guide to Decentralized Social Media - Mastodon

If you're looking for a social media platform that prioritizes privacy, community, and control over your data, you may have heard of Mastodon. Unlike Twitter (now X), YouTube or Facebook, Mastodon is decentralized, meaning it's no single company owns Mastodon. Instead, it's made up of servers that connect with each other and are operated by various people and organizations.

What is Mastodon?

Mastodon is a social networking platform designed to offer an alternative to mainstream services like X, Bluesky or Threads. It allows users to post short messages, follow others, and engage in discussions without being subjected to trackers, intrusive ads or algorithm-driven feeds.

Instead of relying on a single company to dictate the rules, Mastodon is operated by independent communities, each with its own guidelines and moderation policies. From selecting a server that shares your values to creating your own timeline free from corporate influence, this implies that you can have greater control over your own experience.

The platform prioritizes user autonomy in social networking by promoting candid and meaningful interactions.

How to Get Started

1. Choose an Instance

Mastodon has many different servers (also called instances) that are suited to different interests, regions, or moderation styles. Popular options include:

• mastodon.social – The largest general-purpose instance, run by the Mastodon team.
• infosec.exchange – A instance for info/cyber security-minded people.
• mstdn.social – A general-purpose instance hosted in Europe by Stux.

Don't worry too much about choosing the "perfect" instance; you can follow users from any instance and even migrate later. In addition to the well-known instances, you can check to see if your area or community has its own instance.

2. Create your Account

Once you’ve chosen an instance, register with your email, username and password. After verifying your email, you can customize your profile with a bio, name, profile picture, and header image.

You can even verify your account for free as it uses open standards. More about that here.

3. Explore the Interface

Mastodon’s layout includes:

• Home Timeline – Shows the posts from people you follow.
• Local Timeline – Shows the posts from everyone on your instance.
• Federated Timeline – Shows the posts from the part of the Fediverse your instance knows about.
• Notifications – Mentions, follows, boosts (which are retweets), and favorites (which are likes).
• Private mentions – Shows posts which are only visible to you and whose who are mentioned (also the author if the post is from someone else).

Key Features of Mastodon

• Toots – Instead of tweets, you post "toots" (up to 500 characters by default, but some instances allow more). Toots can also have different visibility, like public, followers and only mentions.
• Boosts & Favorites – Boosting shares a toot with your followers, while favoriting simply shows appreciation.
• Content Warnings (shortened to CW) – Allows users to hide sensitive or long content behind a "read more" button.
• Hashtags – Help you discover new content and engage in trending discussions.
• Lists & Filters – Customize your feed by organizing users into lists or filtering out unwanted topics.

Why use Mastodon?

Because Mastodon typically doesn't track you or sell your data, it gives you more privacy and control than traditional social media. You can customize your experience by selecting an instance with rules and moderation that align with your values. It is open-source, community-driven, and funded by donations rather than ads.

Mastodon's chronological feed also guarantees that you see content in real time, unaltered by algorithmic manipulation.

Final Thoughts

Mastodon offers a welcome alternative to popular social networks by prioritizing user autonomy, privacy, and community-driven moderation. Many users find decentralized social media to be more enjoyable and meaningful, though it may take some time to get used to it.

Ready to try it? Find an instance and start exploring today! 🚀

If you want to hear more from me you can find me in the Fediverse at @gelbphoenix@social.gelbphoenix.de (Mastodon) or @gelbphoenix@gram.social (Pixelfed). For more posts like this subscribe to my new newsletter.