Escaping Meta's Cave: Why Plato Would Use Mastodon

• Decentralized Fediverse apps remove the Plato's Cave quality of social media algorithms.
• Algorithms remove freedom of thought and individual development in areas like political discourse.
• Censorship prohibits freedom of thought as much as what the algorithms volunteer to you.
• Without ads and algorithms social media can be a more meaningful space for modern society to congregate.

I.

What's the first thing you do in the morning when you wake up? Set a pot of coffee to brew and open the curtains to let the sun in? No, it's too early for that and you need a few minutes to wake up. Instead you'll check notifications on the phone and see if you've missed anything. Your bestie is always posting premium angles of her cat, but the algorithm already pegged you as a sucker for cats and keeps you on a bit longer with a compilation of cat videos. Boom, you're not even mentally prepared to handle the day yet, and your thoughts are already being guided by social media algorithms.

It seems innocent enough. But to Plato, you've spent the first few moments of your day walking through a cave before you've even begun to touch grass. And if surfing the algorithms farming your attention is the cave, then what's touching grass? And if you're not making a conscious effort to form the path of your time and attention can you really say you're developing with free will or with the commodification of your readership?

This is where decentralized Fediverse social media apps like Mastodon come into play. No ads. No algorithms. Just you and the people. But how does the absence of algorithms make you a more mindful person? Let's start with political discourse. Are you touching grass or taking a stroll through the cave when you're being automatically strung through political rage bait designed to make you argue in the comments?

II.

Entire elections have been influenced by social media. Swaths of voters can be funneled through online cultural pipelines radicalizing or de-radicalizing them. Their echo chambers memetically resonate with parroted prose that conveniently caricature and dehumanize their political opponents. All of this done for you, passively. So you don't have to think about it. Doesn't that sound a bit like propaganda? Just let someone else do the thinking for you.

Political caves on social media are the shadow of genuine political discourse. They're predominately designed to make you mad because, let's face it, the most political engagement you can get out of the masses is by making them mad enough to comment. And how productive have those conversations been? Should the point of political discourse be rage-filled engagement or reflection oriented to self-actualization?

Fediverse apps, on the other hand, give you your power back. No ads and no algorithms to dictate your walk through the Information Age garden. Just you, your curiosity, and real people on the internet. And with mainstream apps trying to bring dead internet theory to life with A.I. accounts "real people" is starting to mean something. Organic conversations with real people about things you actually care about is the walk through the neighborhood that humanity needs more than automated doom-scrolling.

III.

Of course, what algorithms feed you is only half the danger. There's also what algorithms don't feed you. When positive stories and productive collaborative communities of like-minded folks are buried under the noise of inflammatory rage bait how are you supposed to contextualize yourself in the chaos other than through the mold of the corporation writing the algorithm?

Decentralized social media apps like Mastodon let us create highly specialized interest groups. They help us mark the welcome mat for ideas and causes that resonate with us. Like-minded folks that want to collaborate on your cause with you are just a click away without the onslaught of ads and attention-grabbing algorithms. Each instance gets to make its own moderation guidelines, and you can pick one that matches what you're looking for instead of being stuck to one terms of service for an entire corporation. The visibility for your tribe becomes clearer when the algorithmic distractions aren't as loud.

IV.

At first it may not seem very fun logging in to your first Fediverse social media app realizing you don't know where anything is, and you don't know where you'll find anything you're interested in when it's not spoon fed to you. But that's half the fun. You're going to have to look for it. And you won't find anything you're not looking for. On federated apps you're not going to be algorithmically fed data phrased in a way to addict you and keep your face stuck to the screen. Most of the time you'll glance at Mastodon, and once you get to the end of the feed you'll know you've seen everything. It's not going to load new content from other corners of the internet you've never heard of to keep you on the app for another 15 minutes. There's just nothing else to look at unless you're going to go looking for more creators.

And in so doing, you'll have to start new conversations, read new blogs, glance over new art, digest new takes. But every step of the way is a conscious decision. You're actually asking yourself if you want to see more of this on your feed or not. Curating the humanity on your feed becomes less an issue of cutting out things an algorithm suggested to you and more of a shopping for ideas and aesthetics that resonate with you. And by taking this active roll in your feed you'll take your power back from mainstream apps. Much like a gold fish that grows into the confines of its water tank, you'll be able to inform your outlook on real connections instead of the short-sighted fast food takes that algorithms give us.