Tired of Twitter? Tired of Facebook? Hurt by Instagram? Did you bookmark him on TikTok? There’s a whole world of alternative social spaces out there. Your new home awaits you! We’ve reviewed many social networks and gathered the ones that use intriguing new technologies and break the traditional centralized paradigm.
What are alternative social networks?
Here’s what they aren’t: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat, Peach, or something like that. You already know about those digital places and there are many reasons to avoid them. Our short list of lesser-known social sites either mirror services you’re already familiar with, or go in a completely new direction. Many (but not all) are community-operated, decentralized, free, open-source, privacy-focused, and ad-free.
All the services on this list are built on the ActivityPub protocol, which allows for decentralized social networks using independent servers. Each of them has its own community and rules. Imagine that, instead of just one Twitter, there were dozens of individual websites all using Twitter’s code and communicating with each other. This is a decentralized network.
Some ActivityPub services can also interact with each other, forming a larger network of social platforms called with fever. Several different services can talk to each other, although one might be for microblogging and another for photo sharing. Conversely, you cannot follow a Twitter account from Facebook; these are two completely separate worlds. This kind of interaction doesn’t always work perfectly, but it’s one of the most exciting aspects of fedivers.
Why should you give up Facebook, Twitter and the rest?
The big social media platforms were fun for a while, and they brought people together in a way that the old internet couldn’t. Creating a Twitter or Facebook account is infinitely easier than learning how to set up your own website, after all. These platforms gave some people their first opportunity to have a voice online.
But Twitter, Facebook and their ilk required hidden costs. Social media companies make money from their customers by collecting personal data to better target them with ads. To keep engagement high, social media companies use algorithmic feeds that keep people moving — but can also make them miserable(Opens in a new window). These companies also often ignore bad behavior, including hate speech, accepting human misery as a cost of doing business. They have also been bad stewards of our personal information.
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In fairness, it may not be possible, or even wise, to abandon Twitter or Facebook. I maintain a Twitter account to promote my work and the causes I care about, and my family increasingly turns to Facebook to keep in touch. But I’ve greatly reduced the time I spend on those platforms and have been happier with the low-end experience of Mastodon, Pixelfed, and others.
Try something new!
A big complaint about weird social networks is that no one uses them. But this is a self-fulfilling prophecy. Twitter and Facebook weren’t always around, after all(Opens in a new window) loved ones who are now. Celebrities and politicians made these services powerful, but they are successful only because we give them our attention. We can choose to turn that attention elsewhere.
Reading isn’t the most social experience, but BookWyrm is(Opens in a new window) unites book lovers. Search for books to create a reading list, share your progress and ratings, and see what other readers are reading or adding to their wishlists. This seamless experience pairs well with OverDrive, so you can protect your local library from the comfort of your computer or mobile device.
The big advantage over GoodReads? The latter is owned by Amazon while the former is a free, open source project powered by the ActivityPub protocol.
If you’re looking for a more Facebook experience, Friendica(Opens in a new window) worth watching. Friendica is built around profile pages and posts, allowing you to share your digital life with your friends.
While largely comparable to Facebook, Friendica draws from other sources as well. You can create private groups similar to the now defunct Google+ Circles. You can also use Friendica for event planning and its multiple profile feature means you can show a different face to your friends, colleagues and family.
Before Spotify-style streaming subscriptions took off, music lockers were the primary way to get your tunes into the cloud. You uploaded all your songs and then streamed them wherever you were. Such services are extremely rare these days, but they live on at Funkwhale(Opens in a new window).
With Funkwhale, you upload your music and can share songs with other users on your server (called a “pod”) as well as with the larger network. When it comes to copyright, Funkwhale is clearly focused on promoting and sharing free content. However, it is up to individuals to decide what music they share on the system. If you’re looking for a good way to buy music and support artists, check out alternatives like Bandcamp.
Mastodon(Opens in a new window) is a free and open-source microblogging social network on Twitter. It consists of servers run by volunteer admins, so you can find a home with the rules or focus you want. In operation for about six years, it’s home to a thriving culture of serious, thoughtful posts and weird Twitter-style nonsense.
Tools known as faves and reposting (called inciting) are present, but Mastodon does more. The service features visibility settings, giving you some control over who can see your posts. Individual users can also disable and block individual users or entire servers.
Mastodon review
While often overlooked, Facebook Events is one of social networking’s greatest achievements. It has been a critical part of everything from weddings to protest movements. mobilizes(Opens in a new window) aims to do the same, but without the oversight inherent in Facebook’s operations.
With Mobilizon, you can create events, share those events as widely as you want, and keep attendees up-to-date on developments—all without looking for Facebook (you can still share events on Facebook, if you’re on that sort of thing). Mobilizon is free and open source, and connects to other services through ActivityPub.
Mobilizon is from the French non-profit organization Framasoft(Opens in a new window), which has created a host of open source, privacy-friendly tools. Of particular note is its Doodle alternative, Framadate.
Another Framasoft node, PeerTube(Opens in a new window) it targets video sharing platforms like Google’s YouTube. As with other video platforms, you can upload and watch shared videos on PeerTube. Unlike other platforms, PeerTube is built from independent instances of the same software that communicate via ActivityPub.
PeerTube is focused on providing a large amount of content without a large infrastructure. Videos uploaded to one instance can be viewed across the network. PeerTube also uses viewers to lighten the load on the overall network by having viewers watching the same video share some video data.
You can watch a great video explainer about PeerTube – where else? – PeerTube.
Meta, which we used to just call Facebook, bought Instagram for $1 billion in 2012, which seems pretty odd compared to recent social media acquisitions. Instagram has since become the go-to option for posting pictures of pets and brunch, and it’s also known for its strictly targeted advertising. If you’re sick of ads, influencers, and algorithmic feeds, try Pixelfed(Opens in a new window).
Pixelfed is just like Instagram. You upload photos or videos, crop and filter them, and share them with the world. Pixelfed is free, ad-free, and growing fast. She has already undergone huge improvements in her short life and is a great competitor. It also uses ActivityPub, so you can follow Pixelfed accounts from Mastodon and other platforms.
There is currently no official Pixelfed app for Android or iOS, but it works very well as a web app on mobile devices.
Blogger, Medium and WordPress have all made running a blog extremely simple. Write Freely(Opens in a new window) is similar and provides a clean and elegant platform to share your thoughts with the world. It’s free, open source, and with ActivityPub under the hood, users on other platforms can see your WriteFreely posts.
You can post anonymously on a WriteFreely site, or you can create an account to manage one or more blogs. Posts are formatted with Markdown, so you can quickly create a post without bothering with a bunch of options.
Unlike many of the services in this article, WriteFreely has a managed hosting option with paid subscription plans called Write.As(Opens in a new window). Paid accounts give access to additional tools, such as photo hosting. Another blogging platform powered by ActivityPub is Plume(Opens in a new window)which may also be worth a look.
(Image: Shutterstock/sunniwa)
Shortening social networks is easier than you might think. Reclaim precious time in your life every day by making this small change.
