Looking at my tweets from 17 years ago, they often had no faves, no replies, and no retweets (which didn’t really exist yet). And it was fine. There was value even with very limited engagement, just as there is with blogging today.

@manton Yes!

@manton 40404!

@manton I keep going back and forth with this. I know it’s better probably, but I like likes as a quick support measure sometimes. The bigger thing is hashtags. It’s one thing I wish that was here.

@manton I’m coming around to your POV on favs/likes.

On retweets/reshares: The value I get from them is when other people fav and reshare so that I am exposed to posts that I would not otherwise see. So if you, Manton, see a toot that you find valuable, and boost it, I will see that toot too, and get value from it.

I have several people I follow on Masto whose main activity is just boosting. That is why I follow them.

I’ve brought this up in the past but I think I have not communicated it well. My support for boosting has nothing to do with my posts. It’s the opportunity I get to see other people’s posts.

Also: If your tweets 17 years ago weren’t getting likes, retweets or replies, what value did you get from tweeting? Why not just keep a private journal?

Tagging @davew because his contribution would be interesting.

@MitchW I knew some people read the old tweets even if replies were rare. That’s why I think it’s similar to blogging… I know people read my blog, but how many people I have no idea. (Noted about boosts.)

@manton This is what I like about Mastodon (at least my instance). Its still possible to like/boost etc but they are hidden in the feed and even in the post they are very diminished rather than front and center. A few months ago I actually hid such like/watch/sub counts from my youtube client entirely, and for some other sites. It was jarring at first because I realized I relied heavily on those numbers to even decide what was worthy of my attention. Given in many ways those numbers are just an amplification of the distraction-promoting algorithm, I realized my mind was not as free as I thought it was, but freedom hurt initially. Now I am used to not seeing the numbers and it feels really peaceful. There is a difference between peace vs “too quiet”. The “too quiet” feeling is temporary and relative to a previous highly noisy and distracted state. I feel like I have my mind and attention back, and my Internet experience is much better. I do not feel FOMO at all, if anything its the people who are scrolling through such stuff that are missing out on a peaceful mind.