For many people programs are immutable. They just are the way that they are. Thinking about a computer program or search engine as something that you could shape or change to suit your purposes isn’t what our computer education teaches.

People expect to work within the limits of the applications and software— not play a role in shaping its design.

For many people programs are immutable. They just are the way that they are. Thinking about a computer program or search engine as something that you could shape or change to suit your purposes isn’t what our computer education teaches.

People expect to work within the limits of the applications and software— not play a role in shaping its design.

One more hurdle to having these conversations is how many people will say "oh I don't use social media. It's so awful."

How do you know?

And it's mostly true. They don't use it often, but well they were planning the garden center picnic on Facebook, your nephew uses it... a dozen other things.

These social media users don't really see themselves as social media users, No! that is some young person taking selfies or photos of their food.

They can't be in danger of being influenced. Right?

RE: https://mstdn.social/@KentNavalesi/115605106392628909

I want to highlight this response because I often feel this way. But, many of the people who have found their way to the fedi are already interested in software. It can be alien to your ‘average person’.

Just the other day my mother asked: “Why do I see posts from people I don’t know on Facebook?” I explained that was the algorithm. ”So, someone *else* just decides what I see?! that’s awful.”

She only just noticed! But, she seemed more open in that moment to learning about alternatives.

I suspect there is a high correlation between thinking "social media is so terrible" and being very much bombarded by the very worst nonsense, scams, influence campaigns, and time sinks.

I tend to say "I love social media, I use it every day and I learn so much from it. It makes my life better."

People look at me like I have five heads.

When I joined, even as someone who had spent 15 years in the tech industry (+ many years before that studying online interactions)... I felt intimidated by the fediverse.

I probably joined Mastodon about 2 years later than I would have otherwise, had it felt easier.

I was confused by what all the servers meant and worried about choosing the wrong server.

@futurebird

(Turns out, according to many posts I've seen around here, I *did* choose the wrong server when I decided to go with mastodon.social. But thankfully most people are pretty welcoming, regardless.)

@futurebird

(Turns out, according to many posts I've seen around here, I *did* choose the wrong server when I decided to go with mastodon.social. But thankfully most people are pretty welcoming, regardless.)

@futurebird

@kzeta @futurebird Don’t beat yourself up about it. We all had a Yahoo! account at some point, too. We couldn’t have known then what we know now.

@scott @futurebird

It's true.

And Hotmail.

And, now... GMail

@kzeta @futurebird oh god you used Gmail how embarrassing

(I’m kidding but also secretly pleased that people are finally turning against Gmail … at least here on #fedi)