Why Switch?

In an era of growing privacy concerns and digital consciousness, more users are choosing to disconnect from Meta’s ecosystem because of data privacy issues, mental health impacts, time management, and ethical considerations regarding the company’s business practices.

It All Feels Overwhelming

I’m not going to lie, this takes work and time. There’s no magic website where you can use your Facebook login to just move everything over. But, you’re gaining back your data and control. Meta products are free because they sell your data. The good news is there’s no time limit on when you have to do this. This page will break it down into small steps.

What Alternatives Should I Use?

You can use any apps that you want. Here are the apps I’m choosing to use (and that this guide covers):

• Mastodon in lieu of Facebook (note: there are several software programs that all use the same ActivityPub protocol, but Mastodon is the most popular right now)
• Pixelfed in lieu of Instagram
• Signal instead of Messenger (or WhatsApp which is a Meta product, but is more secure than Messenger)

The Fediverse and How it Works

The first two links above are part of the Fediverse. Understanding the Fediverse is probably the most difficult part. However, I’m going to explain it in a way that hopefully makes it easier to understand. The Fediverse is a set of servers that operate on a shared protocol. You already use technologies that do this every day: email and texting. With these technologies it doesn’t matter if you and the person with whom you’re communicating have the same software or provider, you can still communicate.

How it Works

To use common language:

1. You join an instance (also known as a server) and post there.
2. You follow people on ANY instance and you see their updates in your timeline.
3. You can also view the “Local” timeline which is a running stream of all the public posts on that specific instance.

Tell Me About Instances

This is where things get different than other social media accounts. Where Facebook, Instagram, and even Bluesky have all users on one instance, the Fediverse is made up of separate instances that all communicate together. Think of instances as a cousin of Facebook’s Groups. Each instance has:

• Rules about what can be posted
• People with something in common who have accounts there
• A volunteer admin who keeps the instance running
• A local timeline of public posts from people with accounts on that server

A Note About Privacy

One of biggest difference between Bluesky and Mastodon is post privacy. On Bluesky, there is no way to make your posts private or to limit who can view your post. Mastodon has several levels of privacy:

1. Public - the whole world can see your post.
2. Unlisted (or Quiet Public) - Public on your timeline but doesn’t show up in searches.
3. Followers - Only people following you can see it. You can set it so you have to approve followers.
4. Mentioned People - This is a direct message. Only people you’ve tagged can see it.

How do I Find an Instance?

You may find yourself making accounts on several instances to find out who you want to follow and what the vibe of that instance is. Here are some links to help you find an instance:

• mastodon.social is the largest instance and may make it easy to find others.
• instances.social has a quiz you can take
• Join Mastodon gives a list of servers with filters for geographic regions and topics.

How Many Accounts Do I Make?

You can make as many as you like! I have three main instances I follow. The app I use lets me quickly switch between them. I have:

1. My main public one on mastodon.social
2. A library specific one on library.love
3. A gay techie one on tech.lgbt where I’m hoping to find more people

Getting Started

Ok - Time to get started. Here’s what to do:

1. Pick an instance

Browse the sites above and pick an instance. I’d recommend starting with Mastodon.social because it has the most users.

2. Create an account

Click the “Create Account” or “Register” button at the top of the page. After you create your account you can set the privacy settings you want (like if follow requests have to be approved)

3. Follow your friends

Get your friends’ usernames. These look like email addresses with an extra @ at the start. You can search anyone’s username directly to follow them on your server (as long as your server hasn’t blocked their server.)

4. Browse the Local timeline

When you’re signed in, click “Explore” in the navigation. This might be set up differently on different instances, but it should allow you to see at least the people who have accounts on that server.