New Year, New State of Social Flux
There's more to Pixelfed's sudden rapid growth than just the apps. It's also the impeccable timing.
Januaries. Am I right? 😂
The "Monday" of the 12-month calendar, we usually spend it with an elongated "hangover" after all the hoopla and shenanigans of the holidays. Time to regroup, recharge, attempt to follow through with New Year's planning (how's that going?!), and set the tone for the months ahead.
Well…
January's only half-over as I write this, and jeeezus, what a mind job!
Want to stay in the social web loop? Make sure you don't miss another issue of Cycles Hyped No More:
Let me attempt to explain… No, there is too much. Let me sum up.
(Am I allowed two movie quotes back to back? I hope so! 😅)
- Jan 7: Meta goes MAGA 😵💫
- Jan 10: I talk about that s**tshow on Fresh Fusion 😅
- Jan 10: Mark Zuckerberg tells Joe Rogan most code will soon be written by "AI engineers" not "people engineers"
- Jan 13: Mastodon announces pending ownership transfer of key Mastodon assets, trademarks, etc. to a new non-profit
- Jan 13: Free Our Feeds aims to "billionaire-proof" the AT Protocol
- Jan 14: Pixelfed launches first-party mobile apps, subsequently blows up
- Jan 17: TikTok…???
And if you'll permit me, I'll roll this bit of December news in too: Flipboard announces Surf, the first Open Social Web browser
So yeah, that's quite a lot of activity to process. I wonder what will happen in the world of social media before the end of January?
Pixelfed's Time to Shine
Let's focus on Pixelfed for a moment.
For the longest time, I've wondered why Pixelfed hadn't gotten more attention than it had. It always seemed to remain at low single-digit percentage marketshare—of the Fediverse, which itself is still a niche in absolute numbers . What is it about Mastodon that makes it relatively popular in this space, but Pixelfed hardly receives similar exposure?
Well…never underestimate the importance of a first-party mobile app for a social network, especially one focused on photography. It seems that having an official Pixelfed app featured in the Apple App Story, Google Play, and so forth, really changes the game.
But I think there's more to Pixelfed's sudden rapid growth than just the apps. It's also the timing. In a twist of fate which feels written in the stars, the Pixelfed apps have launched at an exact time when people are spooked about the alarming Trumpist turn of Instagram's owner. Every review of Pixelfed I've seen so far, the marketing pitch is that it's like early Instagram (I suppose echoing the common refrain a few years ago that Mastodon felt like early Twitter). And for a lot of folks, you had me at ad-free…and Meta-free.
There is also a great number of people in the United States having epic meltdowns at the thought that TikTok will be banned. This ill-advised scheme has already led to a massive growth spurt for 小紅書 (known colloquially as RedBook), ironically an Instagram-like app directly based in China. Good job, America!
I've been seeing so many new accounts posting on Pixelfed for the first time mentioning they're a refugee from TikTok. There's also an overflow of sentiment roughly summarized as F**k Meta! Good job, Zuck!
The truth of the matter is that Instagram could lose a million or two of its userbase and Meta would hardly blink, due to the enormous scale of their operations. But a million or two suddenly in the Fediverse, using Pixelfed, interacting and discovering with a million other people using Mastodon, Flipboard, and the like? This is a thunderclap moment for the nascent Indie Social Web.
Daniel Supernault, the brains behind the Pixelfed operation, has a lot of irons in the fire—too many, some might argue. But the thing I love most about @dansup is he's a true believer. He's been a stalwart Fediverse figure for years now and is more committed now than ever to building serious social infrastructure. Not only is Pixelfed having its moment in the spotlight (finally!), but Dan's direct TikTok competitor, Loops, is currently in beta testing and likely to launch to the public soon. And now with Pixelfed's momentum, it seems that a Kickstarter is in the offing.
I hope that before too much time passes, we see stewardship of Pixelfed, Loops, et al. pass to more of a formal oversight organization of some sort. As we all know, no matter how well-meaning and ethically-minded someone may be, absolute power corrupts absolutely. I'd hate to see these platforms go sideways in the near future because of a major dustup or burnout.
The Momentum is on Our Side
In the meantime, Big Social's loss is Indie Social Web's gain. The key takeaway in all of this is a sign we have the wind at our backs and the naysayers continue to misjudge what the Fediverse is all about. There's literally nothing stopping any enterprising developer(s) from building an awesome new social product and reaching a considerable number of users—and also it features ActivityPub support. 😎 It's always so weird to me when someone assumes that what's happened in the past to shape Mastodon's growth in particular paints a definitive picture of what every Fediverse service's trajectory will look like in the future. Poppycock!
Every service, every software platform, every entry into this landscape will have its own story of growth and change and success over time. It's just like the document/application-focused web itself—from its inception in the early 90s to today, the growth of the underlying technology is only a small part of the larger story of all the products and services and creativity and innovation which happens on top of it.
So it is with the Fediverse. As I've said before, and as I'll say many times again: you ain't seen nuthin' yet.
Hey, if you haven't been over to The Internet Review in a while, definitely check it out! We've been publishing pretty regularly since the holidays and got a lot of stories in the hopper. What would you like to see us cover next? Email me and let us know! And please share this newsletter and links thereof with your techy friends!
Cheers,
Jared White
🤔🌩️ Things that make you think:
Things are being made linearly worse in the pursuit of growth in every aspect of our digital lives, and it’s because everything must grow, at all costs, at all times, unrelentingly, even if it makes the technology we use every day consistently harmful. This year has, on some level, radicalized me, and today I’m going to explain why.