Howdy,
Last week I asked this question in the comment section of Ghost's weekly ActivityPub newsletter:
I struggle with explaining to friends why they should join the Fediverse. These aren't techie types, so I need to break it down. I always send them your piece at activitypub.ghost.org. But maybe they don't read it. ... How do I explain to folks that they can take their content with them?
We're very early in the life of ActivityPub, so in some ways it's pretty natural that it's a bit tricky to explain. It was difficult to get people to understand what the point of the web was, early on ("what's surfing?"). It was even more difficult to get anyone to understand why they should be interested in Twitter ("why would I care what someone had for breakfast?").
People often struggle to grasp the big picture of a technological movement because it's simply too abstract unless you happen to work in technology. What often unites people, though, is seeing what the technology is being used for.
Even people who didn't really get the point of YouTube were enamored by Chocolate Rain and Charlie bit me — and people started to understand Twitter as soon as influencers they were interested in started posting on it.
So, perhaps the best way to advocate for the Fediverse to your friends is not to talk about the technology at all — but rather to show them your favorite content that exists within it which you think they might enjoy, too.
At the end of the day, technology is only truly valuable if it's being used for something you're actively interested in.
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This really stuck out:
"At the end of the day, technology is only truly valuable if it's being used for something you're actively interested in."
So how to get others to join the Fediverse? Show them something they can do that's of interest to them!
tty next time,
