For years, platforms like Twitter (now X), Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok have dominated how we communicate online. They’ve shaped public conversation, helped creators build audiences, and connected people across the world. But they’ve also centralized power, attention, and influence in ways that increasingly work against both users and the open web.

These platforms thrive on algorithmic manipulation, data extraction, and user lock-in. Every scroll, click, and post is optimized for engagement — not expression. The result is a system that rewards outrage over insight, virality over value, and dependence over digital freedom.

When a few corporations control the pipes of public discourse, your voice is only as visible as the algorithm allows it to be. The community you build can disappear overnight — through platform changes, suspensions, or opaque policy shifts. The “social” in social media has slowly been replaced by something more extractive and less human.

Decentralized social media offers an alternative: one built on open protocols, interoperability, and user ownership.

On platforms like Mastodon (built on ActivityPub) and Bluesky (built on the AT Protocol), no single company owns your identity, your audience, or your data. You can move between servers or apps without losing your followers or history — a level of portability that mainstream networks would never allow.

This isn’t just a technical difference — it’s a philosophical one. Decentralization restores digital sovereignty to individuals and communities. It reclaims the internet’s original promise: an open network where people connect directly, not through the gatekeepers of Silicon Valley.

After years of frustration with mainstream platforms, I’ve made the shift to Mastodon as my primary social space. The community-driven nature of Mastodon feels refreshingly authentic — conversations are slower, more intentional, and less algorithmically charged. It’s social media that feels social again.

I also cross-post to Bluesky, because I believe in its potential as an open protocol network that prioritizes composability and long-term interoperability. Both Mastodon and Bluesky represent the kind of web I want to help build: one where creativity and connection aren’t locked behind walled gardens.

My mainstream social media profiles still exist — but only as redirect hubs. They serve a simple purpose: to guide people toward my Substack and my decentralized profiles. In other words, I’m using centralized platforms as on-ramps to open ecosystems, rather than as destinations themselves.

It’s a subtle shift, but an important one. I’m no longer building my digital presence on rented land.

The web is slowly moving back toward its roots — away from monopolized feeds and toward open, federated systems. It’s not a trend; it’s a correction.

Moving to Mastodon and Bluesky isn’t just about finding better apps. It’s about supporting a healthier internet — one where users, not algorithms, set the tone of conversation. One where communities can thrive on their own terms.

If you’re tired of shouting into algorithmic voids, or feeling like your work exists at the mercy of corporate platforms, I invite you to explore this open web with me.

Let’s make the internet ours again.