how do you even use twitter?
I’m not actually using twitter, just never got into it, but now that I’m trying out mastodon, idk if I’m just too old now but I don’t.. get it. I just can’t seem to engage with anyone, the UI seems confusing and counterintuitive, I don’t seem to have the context to get into this type of website, can someone tell me how I do this?
With regards to Mastodon, there's no algorithm. So you'll need to be using the hashtag search function to really find the sort of people you're interested in communicating with.
This. Learn how the site search works and search for tage before posting to make sure you'll be in the same feed.
@feditips@mstdn.social (enter that into your search box on Mastodon) has an excellent and curated collection of tips, resources, groups and people to suggest to you to get started.
I'm admittedly not the best person to talk about it, since I don't really get the appeal, but in general, Twitter/Mastrodon is for following people you care about. Its largely about people rather than content or discussion, similar to a list of blogs rather than a forum. To find content you can look at tags (mostly to get a general pulse on the topic) but will mostly want to find people to follow, who's content you want to read, such as friends, politicians, celeberties, or influential figures in your field.
Unfortunately personally, I found no one on Mastrodon that consistantly interested me (beyond a couple bots copying Twitter feeds) but hopefully you'll have more luck.
That’s what I was going to ask. I’ve never been able to figure out Twitter either, but my best guess is you need to follow people rather than topics, and I’m generally not interested in that
I haven't really used Twitter much but Mastodon does allow you to follow tags, which is basically what you have in mind
It was pretty easy to use back in the day when it was just posts from people you follow in reverse order. I stopped using it when they implemented the algorithm.
Platforms like this are mostly sort of for self centered people, or those willing to follow self centered people. It's why I couldn't get into Twitter back in the day either. I just don't have anything to say about my life, and I'm not interested in the life of others. And for things like news aggregation or specific topics there's just other platforms that fit better for that task, like our infamous Reddit or its fediverse alternatives like Kbin & Lemmy.
I've never been able to use Twitter or mastodon. It's just not for me ig
it's a pretty simple app, what are you having issues with?
OP isn't having a technical problem, they're just not seeing the point of why someone would want to use it, what is it good for
How I use it is probably different to how other people use it; I use it to report incidents of public/local interest, and to find out about such things. That’s it. Works really well for that.
I just use it as a place to vent my thoughts, feelings, or frustrations in the moment. I think of it as "screaming into the void" and over time you collect a small circle of people you regularly interact with. Don't think about it too deeply because it's not deep
It's just microblogging. Just post about things that you're interested in, pop in some relevant hashtags and then people will engage with you.
I use Twitter exclusively to follow tech YouTubers and eSports players
I used to be in a large group centered around the jam band scene. Most of those have moved on though.
I use one Mastodon account for looking at, sharing and chatting about cool craft projects, and another account to meet other small-time gamedevs and cheer each other on. Also ended up meeting someone from the #Eurovision tag irl last year when we ended up randomly seated right next to each other in the arena, which was a bit mad.
I've never seen the point of social media either unless you've actually got something interesting to say or at the very least something in particular you want to see other people talk about. But what's interesting kind of depends on the person.
What is it you want to talk about? What is it you have to share? Jump into the hashtag feed for those things and make some friends.
use BHTwitter or twitter control panel to make X experience bearable.
i use it for calyxjabberserv