RIP social media.

[arstechnica@mastodon.social]

RIP social media. What comes next is messy.
As social media splinters, how can we keep the new online spaces from devolving into toxic pits of despair?
https://arstechnica.com/science/2026/05/rip-social-media-what-comes-next-is-messy/?utm_brand=arstechnica&utm_social-type=owned&utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=social

[guffo@topspicy.social]

@arstechnica The existing social media has been a toxic hellhole for years. That's why we left.

The way to keep social media pleasant is to keep algorithms and Big Money out of it.

[t2r@infosec.exchange]

@arstechnica Keep the oligarchs, corporations, and money out of it.

[jaicup@mindly.social]

@arstechnica Federate.

[vorsos@beige.party]

@arstechnica RIP corporate social media. It’s no longer the assumed default—just as cow isn’t the assumed default milk—so I am disappointed the article fails to mention this alternative which effectively quarantines Nazis and bots.

[rondoexcaliblur@mesmerized.online]

@TheGreatLlama @arstechnica Disagree, ime the Fediverse is nothing but toxic ideological silos that hate each other.

The sorting happens because we WANT it to. We want to "find our Tribe" and then never venture outside that confort zone, and history has proven time and again that those with means will fight forced integration efforts tooth and nail.

This problem is intractable because human nature desires if not demands tribalism, and you can't innovate that away.

[rthaar@mastodon.social]

@arstechnica NOSTR is the answer for this. NOSTR is a protocol on which apps can work, and decentralizes everything. Apps such as mastodon and loops could and should work on that. See nostr.com and nostr.org