There are plenty of social media platforms out there, but lots of people find them to be toxic and draining. While there's certainly a lot of good in social media, a lack of control over your feed and the algorithm can quickly cause you to fall into a content rut or come across content that you don't like.

Mastodon, an open-source social network that is focused on the user, aims to change that. What you want to see, what you want to ignore, what you want to share, these things are all governed by granular controls, meaning you retain complete control over what is seen.

Mastodon Instances for Everyone

If you head to mastodon.social to sign up, you'll find that there's more than one Mastodon. While they're all connected, the various instances of Mastodon (all running on separate servers, administered by volunteers donating spare server resources) offer different experiences.

A list of servers for Mastodon on its website

For instance, the first you find might be focused on a particular topic, like technology or a TV show. Another might offer general discussion but with strict rules against "non-progressive" name-calling.

Be wary, however. While you might find an instance that focuses on technology, you're just as likely to stumble over one that offers pornography. Mastodon supports audio and video (see below), so you might run into material you don't want to see. As a result, children should not use Mastodon unsupervised.

There are many Mastodon servers, which you can find on the Mastodon servers page. These servers restrict account creation from time to time, so you'll have to find the best server available or get on the waiting list for another.

Signing Up for Mastodon

Once you've found an instance you like the look of, sign up. You'll need to provide a username, valid email address (for account verification), and a strong password. After signing in with a verified account name, you'll see a columnar user interface, similar to Twitter's Tweetdeck web app.

You'll see three columns:

  1. Your profile and Toot field: A Toot is the Mastodon equivalent of a Tweet.
  2. Home: Toots from people you follow will appear here.
  3. Notifications: Any Toots directed your way and other activity is listed here.
The web app of Mastodon with a Home feed profile section and menu

The first thing you should do before sending a Toot, however, is to click Preferences. From there, set up your avatar image, preferred username, and profile. You can do this in Edit Profile. There's also a link in the Profile column.

The edit profile page on the Mastodon web app

Once you Save Changes, click Back to Mastodon, and use the Search field to find users discussing topics you're interested in. When you find someone, open their profile, and click the Follow button.

A users profile on Mastodon with the Follow button present

The more people you follow, the more interesting the Home column will be!

Get Tooting

Ready to share your thoughts with the world of Mastodon? Unlike Twitter, where you have a mere 140 characters to share your thoughts, Toots can comprise up to 500 characters. This means you can share a lot more in one go.

Like Twitter, you can add hashtags and @ mentions to your Toots.

A wide selection of emojis is available for you to add to your Toots, and you can also upload photos as well as add polls. The CW button enables you to set a custom content warning. This will obscure your toot until a reader clicks on it. Similarly, the NSFW button will appear when a media link or image is added.

Photos can be added from your device via the camera icon. How your post is disseminated across the instance and beyond is determined via the globe button. Mastodon is a great open-source social media platform alternative, but it's not the only one out there.

Safety, Security, and Privacy With Mastodon

The globe button, labeled Adjust status privacy, is one of the most important elements of your Mastodon experience. Each toot can be given a privacy level:

  • Public: Posts to public timelines.
  • Followers only: Posts to followers only.
  • Only people I mention: Posts to mentioned users only.

This focus on privacy and safety is further enhanced via the Settings > Preferences screen. Here, you can specify a default post privacy setting and configure notifications. For instance, if you want to block notifications about activity by non-followers, you can check the corresponding box and click Save Changes.

With several mobile apps being available for Mastodon, you could feel that it's not the most secure social platforms from cybercriminals. In this case, enabling two-factor authentication is a wise idea, just in case someone nabs your phone.

It's better to be safe and secure online than not. You should be using two-factor authentication anyway, but if you haven't thus far, consider this a reminder to use it before getting set up on Mastodon and other, future social media platforms.

Make Mastodon Mobile

All current mobile platforms have Mastodon client apps available.

  • Windows 10/Xbox One/Windows 10 Mobile users should go for the Mastodon app on Microsoft Store (free), a straightforward client app that brings the mastodon.social instance to your device. You're currently locked into this instance, but you'll be able to join others later.
  • Several Android clients are available for Mastodon, but the top pick has to be the imaginatively named Tusky (free). This open-source client will let you interact with your preferred Mastodon instance and share words, pictures, and videos just as you would through the browser.
  • iOS users can use the Amoroq for Mastodon (free) client. This comes with the same features you would enjoy in the browser, including emoji support, GIF and video upload, hashtag search, and so on.

Most users tend to prefer having social media on their phone rather than on a desktop or laptop. If you were put off by the idea of using Mastodon on desktop, rest assured you can find an app for it on your phone.

Time to Toot, Not Tweet

Mastodon is a great alternative to Twitter, and one that might actually get out of the starting gates and make its presence felt.

While the platform is probably different from what you're used to, that shouldn't stop you from trying it out. Spend a few days giving it a try, Mastodon might just be the social space you've been looking for.