Just A Few Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, And YouTube Alternatives

If you no longer want to be part of the connected world that's also the ad-supported world, there are alternatives. They aren't the same as the apps and social networks you use now, and it's not often that they get as big a celebrity following – but maybe that's not why you're on the internet in the first place. Today we're having a peek at a few alternatives to the major social networks as they roll right this minute.

If there was ever an app/social network I thought could take the place of Twitter, it was and is Mastodon. Not only does it have a great name, it looks nice – and it acts nice, too. It's open sourced, it has a bunch of developers creating apps for it, and it works on the web and in apps for Android and iOS.

Head over to Mastodon dot Social to see what's up. I recommend the app Tusky for Android and Tootdon for iOS devices.

Facebook is going to be the most difficult nut to crack. Not because it's irreplaceable, but because there are so many different sorts of people using it for different reasons. If you're looking for a new place to socialize and find people with interests similar to yours, I recommend looking into Diaspora.

However, if you're looking to keep connected with your family to share photos and videos and whatnot, we're going to need to look elsewhere. Diaspora isn't for everyone because it's not super easy to set up and get going with. If when you get down to it, you only want to share photos of your kids with your mother, I recommend hitting up either SmugMug or Flickr. Both platforms offer the ability to pay a fee for ad-free browsing, making sure you're not the one who's being made into the product. SEE ALSO: MediaGoblin (below).

Perhaps the greatest hope for a human-made and human-run Federated Image Sharing platform on the internet today is PixelFed. The only bad news here is that not everyone can join at the point at which this article is set to go live. Have a peek at Pixelfed on Mastodon to keep up to date on when it'll launch for all people.

If you want the simplest solution, go to Vimeo. They're not perfect, but they're not YouTube. If you want to put in a LITTLE more work, have a peek at MediaGoblin. This solution works as an alternative not only to YouTube, but to Flickr, SoundCloud, and other media hosting brand monsters. This is decentralized, and this is good.

You'll want to have a peek at PeerTube if you're looking only to upload video. This will require a bit more technical knowhow, not unlike MediaGoblin. Right in-between the ease of YouTube and the difficulty of PeerTube/MediaGoblin is DTube. That's a platform where STEEM coins are earned, too – so watch out for crypto gremlins!

If any of the suggestions I've given here aren't independent, federated, or decentralized enough for you, please suggest some more alternatives! We're open to new services of most sorts!