I was watching a YouTube video the other day. It was talking about the history of modern social media and how they rely heavily on algorithms designed to drive engagement above all else. The reason is obvious - more people engaged, more advertising gets seen. They went on to point out that the kind of content that got the most engagement was divisive and controversial. Hateful bigotry and divisive politics is the most successful content according to the algorithms of the big social media giants. Cat pictures and funny memes get a look in, but they don’t compare in the level of engagement according to the algorithms.

I now better understand why my content has never been popular anywhere else. I’m so thankful there’s a place like #Mastodon to make my online home.