I plan to end my Facebook account before January 19. I like the format and would like something similar in the Fediverse. Also, I need a good Facebook alternative I can show people when trying to convince them to leave Facebook.
So what is the best Facebook alternative as of 2025? Frendica, Diaspora or Pleroma? Or something new and promising?
The problem is that Facebook isn’t just about keeping up with your friends and family. It’s an engagement platform designed to keep your attention by showing you memes and “news” and videos and ads that it knows you like. Most people have become addicted to this slow and steady stream of dopamine. You’re not going to get people off their crack addiction by substituting it with marijuana.
As these social platforms become more powerful, it’s up to each of us to personally find the strength to wean ourselves away from these platforms that once promised socialization but have quickly become little more than propaganda and influencing and ad-serving machines.
It’s great we’re seeing some alternatives but, aside from a small cohort, most people are not going to find the likes of Bluesky, Mastodon, or Lemmy engaging enough to give them that hit that they’re used to.
All hail the algorithm.
Personally, I used to be the early adopter who was on all these platforms well before most of the public heard about them. In recent years, I’ve either deleted or stopped using my social accounts (or have chosen to use less engaging ones, like Lemmy). This has given me more time to live a life.
Boredom is something I embrace. Rather than turning to a screen to occupy me; I’ll take a nap, make some tea, journal, go for a walk, do some cleaning, build something, practice something, read a book or comic. It’s not as dynamic, for sure, but I get to experience and learn more about myself instead of needlessly observing the lives of others. Boredom offers a renewed sense of self and humanity. Frankly, I’m afraid younger generations won’t know what benefits and beauty boredom has to offer.
Best would probably be if I quit social media. I find arguing on Facebook, Reddit and Lemmy very addictive.
However, I prefer it if my local boomers are on a slightly addictive but open and transparent social media, which isn’t controlled by an oligarch or random orange fascist.
I want something that is so similar to Facebook, that I basically can post a link on Facebook and when the boomer follow that link they’ll effortlessly create a new account and start using the fediverse FB clone, because that’s where I’ll post my content from now on.
That just doesn’t exist. Probably the biggest obstacle to large-scale fediverse adoption at the moment is just that it requires a little more effort to sign up. Lots of people get turned off by picking an instance
The solution there is to have them pick the instance rather than the underlying technology. To want to join, I don’t know, tenforward.social and chat with other Trekies (and connect to other communities as a bonus) rather than to join “Mastodon”.
But everyone’s all focused on big social now, caysing usball to approach this backwards. Once you do that, things get more confusing and frustrating.
Language and countries instances can also help build a feeling of community
The fix to that problem seems trivial though.
Hopefully there will pop up some commercial FOSS fediverse FB alternatives now when Facebook is about to go all in on the crazy. Or that the EU will pour some big money on the existing alternatives.
Anyway, Frendica seems to be the best option right now so I’ll give it a serious try.