Today, social media returns to the people, little kids cheer us up, and we think about the benefit of not knowing it all. Tie that in with pictures and music, and you have a great Thursday Review. See you on Mastodon!

One of our favorite Wall Street Journal writers, Joanna Stern, brought one of the larger Mastodon servers to a “Popeyes Chicken Sandwich” halt.

Reports of a mass exodus of Twitter users looking for an alternative platform for text clips continues. Mastodon appears to be the early winner, but as Joanna reports, Mastodon isn’t Twitter and even reminds us of the ‘fail whale’ days of a super buggy start with the 15th most comprehensive social media platform. Mastodon is similar to Twitter in a user’s ability to send out short 500-character text messages; outside of messaging, Mastodon looks a lot more like Napster back in the day.

Mastodon looks like a platform that sits on several servers run by different groups. When you go to Mastodon’s website, it will link you to a list of servers, and most of those servers cater to other groups of users. Music, art, tech, and a large general category. Signups go through the server that you sign up with. Sterns signed up with Mastodon.world because she likes dinosaurs, and according to the owner of that server - they were not ready for the attention Mastodon is getting.

Microcommunications inside social media will continue. The Twitter Show could settle itself over the next several months, and users will stay if it’s the same or better than it has been. Researching Mastodon and even setting up and playing around with an account is not a bad idea. We set up two different accounts this week on two other Mastodon Servers. How many email addresses do you have?

If sitting at the beach listening to waves washing over the sand or sitting on a deck in the mountains with the abundance of oxygen emanating from one thousand trees settles your soul, we found something to add to the list of soul-settling experiences in your life. Artists Jessica Martin and Asherah Weiss created PepToc, a project with West Side Elementary school students in Healdsburg, CA. When you call the hotline, you have several options of listening to kids giving you words of encouragement. Our favorite is #4 children laughing with delight—pure sonic heaven.

The Smithsonian has a story on The Biggest Fails in License Plate History. Everything from an Idaho potato license plate to a fight over what state can claim the Wright Bros. It’s a fun, quick read.

As a group of writers and curiosity enthusiasts, we actively seek conversations with people who will give us more information. Everything we read, seek out, source, hear and write about starts with that foundation. The foundation is the excitement we get from searching for more information. At With A Shout, if we had a constitution, one of the principles would be

Let’s pretend that the information another person has is gold. All you have to do to get more gold is ask questions with a genuine interest in learning what that person has to say. Every conversation has gold; if your goal is to get the gold, you are less likely to have a chat and vomit words all over the person you are talking to.

Glenn Loury helped us highlight our principles after reading quotes from a recent interview he did with Hamish McKenzie on The Active Voice. Loury is an economics professor at Harvard, author, and essayist. Here is our favorite quote from Mr. Loury:

[Music Notes]

Bono was on Late Show with Stephen Colbert and discussed what he thinks about the U.S., and Bono loves the U.S. He continued that if you get a 23 and Me Ancestry Report, it won’t say American (unless you are a Native American). And with that, Bono says America is too new to show up, keep the idea that it is America, and don’t be too hard on yourself.

Have a Beautiful Day.

[More New Stuff]

Words | Music | Art | Unknown

First reader favorite.

Click on the Apple Music image to listen to the song on Apple Music or on the Spotify Image to listen to Spotify.

Thank you for spending a few minutes with us!

With A Shout Team