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Logo design credit goes to: tubbadu
Consult privacyguides.org for guidance regarding new messaging and email solutions. I imagine you'll probably want to ask your family to sign up for signal.
The only alternative to social media is the fediverse. The bad news is that the fediverse is not private. The good news is that frankly social media as a concept just isn't mandatory, so if you need privacy, you can just...not. Once you break the addiction, you realize how unnecessary it all was.
Thanks for the suggestions, whats the issue in making pms within the fedivese e2e encrypted?
Consult privacyguides.org for guidance regarding new messaging and email solutions. I imagine you'll probably want to ask your family to sign up for signal.
The only alternative to social media is the fediverse. The bad news is that the fediverse is not private. The good news is that frankly social media as a concept just isn't mandatory, so if nobody signs up, you can just keep in contact with your friend and family using signal.
Why flock anywhere? Lemmy is the extent of my social media sine the reddit API changes.
You don't need social media.
Remember... when you're killing time it's killing you back.
I have wasted time, and now doth time waste me
Being productive is an effective way to waste one's life.
Maximize wasting time. None of your or almost anyone's works will be remembered.
Everything in moderation. Including moderation.
Fucking awesome quote. I'm going to keep that one in my back pocket.
What's App : Signal.
Instagram: Pixelfed
TikTok: loops
YouTube: peertube
Xitter: Mastodon (pleroma, akkoma, etc ...)
Google maps: open street map
Reddit: Lemmy 😉
Google search: duck duck go, startpage
I'll let you Google the names of the different apps.
Google search: duck duck go, startpage
DuckDuckGo has a history of working with Microsoft to track users. Startpage is straight up owned by advertising company.
Use a search engine proxy like 4get, or a full meta search engine like SearXNG or MetaGer that pulls its data from multiple sources at once.
On phone instead of google maps I recommend Organic Maps! Best way to use open street map.
Adding in yt-dlp. Not a platform but a useful tool to download youtube videos for archival or redistribution.
Matrix for discord as well.
Hotel: trivago....
Ok jokes aside, add to that:
Whatsapp: SimpleX, Matrix Google Photos: Immich Reddit: Lemmy, Mbin, and Piefed
Messaging: Signal
Social Media: Mastodon, second choice Bluesky
Instagram: Pixelfed
Also, there’s loops.video for reels, since Pixelfed only does images. Loops is running on the Pixelfed platform, and there appear to be plans to integrate the two at some point further down the road.
The biggest issue with Loops right now is that account verification emails seem to be sent out manually by the admins, so it can take a day or two to arrive after you initially create your account. And you can’t use the platform at all until that email arrives. So it’s not exactly the most friendly onboarding experience.
90% of these apps are doing nothing good for you. You don't need to replace them, you need to quit them and start touching grass. I'm also talking to myself here.
Talking all day to people you never see physically is damaging your brain.
Touch grass? It's -20C/-4F and there is snow outside :-(
Ah, then it's obviously take all of your clothes off and go roll around in the snow
I think you're right but my only issue is permanently loosing contact with old friends from different countries.. If there's a change of phone numbers then I might not be able to contact them ever again..
Facebook is a bad idea. All of those that link back to your real identity seem to get so bad so fast. I have never had one and just text people, email them, visit them in person. I don't need everyone to know everything all the time and can't understand why anyone does.
Mastodon, Pixelfed, Signal.
Pixelfed is currently experiencing massive growth so that is a good Instagram alternative to focus on at the moment.
US Postal Service
There are some interesting ones that have already been mentioned here. But just be aware that they're ghost towns, when compared to the networks they'd be leaving. Their fav creators probably aren't on them, and neither are most of their friends or family.
They have a chicken and egg problem where people aren't on them because people aren't yet on them.
I describe to friends as “internet rural life”: things go slower, for now.
That’s how all these things started though. People at church over 50/60 are asking me about bluesky. That’s a good sign for me.
I'd argue that in some ways they are more active. Posting on Reddit was like farting in a hurricane.
In Lemmy there seems to be more interaction. You don't have to get a million up votes for anyone to see your post.
That's true. It's very often I'll get actual replies to things I contribute, which is cool!
I think a lot of the ghost town effect is because other platforms focused on superficial things you don't really see much here. Big sparkly notifs when you get an updoot and meta-currencies and that sort of thing.
I don't get a lot of upvotes on stuff, which sometimes gives the impression nobody's seen it. Furthermore, I find if I respond to something posted older than a few days or a week? That convo is dead. Haha.
There are lots of Fediverse alternatives to social media, including Lemmy (which I guess you know about?) and the ones people have mentioned here already (Mastodon, Pixelfed, Loops, PeerTube). The advantage of the Fediverse is that it can't be co-opted by a single bad actor, in the way that Musk took over Twitter and made it into a Nazi bar.
You're already here.
Yeah and I love it but this is still very tech niche and looking for an instant messaging solution. I don't want to become a pariah socially isolated in regards to my friends and family..
For friends and family I use my phone's IM. For total strangers on lemmy I just use Reply.
If all you want is a place to get memes, hello, you're in the least bad place on the internet, the indie web/fediverse.
But to keep in touch with family members and friends, who are likely not techy people?
.... I guess you could get them on Signal?
I mostly talk to my folks through Telegram, but that's as far as I could take them (still consider it a win over using WhatsApp, because Telegram might be full of fascists but at least has an open API and a competent Linux client)
WhatsApp -> Simplex
I recommend Simplex over signal because its not tied to your phone number and has no identifiers.
The first messenger without user IDs
Though I agree with it being a good recommendation, Signal is BY FAR easier to set up and have people use. I think that's what will help adoption.
Discoverability is the issue. It is one of the main reasons Signal sticks with phone numbers.
Everyone in my contact list is a potential Signal contact. That's useful. Chat is still private.
If I want secret chats, I use Simplex.
