Most of us are used to social media platforms owned by big companies with ads, algorithms, and tight control. But Mastodon is something different. It looks like Twitter, but under the hood, it’s powered by people—not a corporation.
To explain how it works, this video compares Mastodon to a music festival. If Twitter is one giant fenced-in concert owned by a single company, Mastodon is a collection of community-led shows—each with its own vibe, rules, and audience. You choose your home concert (or community), and from there, you can explore and connect with others across the whole festival.
This analogy helps show that Mastodon isn’t about one central platform. Instead, it’s open-source software that anyone can use to build a community. There’s no CEO, no ads, and no data harvesting—just real people coming together around shared interests.
You’ll learn what to expect when using Mastodon, how to pick your home community, and how your identity and feed stay connected across the wider network. And since Mastodon is part of the Fediverse, you’ll also see how your account can interact with other platforms that follow the same open standards.
In a world of big tech, Mastodon offers a refreshing alternative—one where the power belongs to communities.