Mastodon Is a Lot Like Twitter

This post on Mastodon concerning the 15-minute city demonstrates what I’ve been saying all along: When you purely look at how people argue, Mastodon isn’t any different than Twitter.

Here’s the post:

“My hot take on ‘15 minute cities’ is if you can get to the coffee shop within fifteen minutes, but the barrista who makes your drink can’t afford to live closer than a half-hour away, then you live in a theme park.” - Gareth Klieber #cities #urbanism #housing #transit #cycling

The take is not wrong. But it condenses one opinion about a hot-button topic to 278 characters. It’s pointed and missing nuance, which makes it more provocative aiming to receive more interaction, comments and shares. And it worked; it landed on Kottke’s blog, which has tens of thousands of readers.

Mickey Mouse and Goofy won’t be parading down the street at noon if the staff in a coffee shop have to travel more than fifteen minutes to work. The idea of the 15-minute city—to have all important amenities, including work, available within a short walk from your home—that ideal just isn’t fulfilled in the scenario. Although closer to the truth, phrasing it this way sounds rather boring. So many important questions are not asked: Is the ideal 15-minute city even attainable? What needs to happen to change our current cities? What role does public transport play? Would the car-manufacturing lobby play along?

And the replies: Pseudo-philosophic ramblings about privilege. Someone has to point out a small typo, to which the original author obviously needs to reply. Another person says “working class,” and the discussion only spirals around that for a while. Only a few comments dissect the issue with the original statement.

Is that any different from Twitter? Is that the nirvana of civility that the loudest advocates of Mastodon promised a couple of months ago? We’re past the honeymoon period now with Mastodon. A lot of people have joined the platform, and more conversations involve more participants. And the people that were the loudest on Twitter become the loudest on Mastodon: People with a puffed-out sense of mission, confidence and extroversion. None of this is worth moderating; there’s no bullying, nothing illegal or offensive in this conversation. But there’s no exchange of ideas, no listening—it’s people talking at each other instead of with each other.

It’s what drove me away from Twitter three years ago and what drove me away from Facebook before that. The underlying protocols and technology can change, but it will always be humans arguing on the Internet—it won’t ever change.