I’m looking to expand my connections and engage in conversations with others who are interested in what I am. Mastodon allows me to follow hashtags as well as people. Not knowing which would be the most suitable I asked Microsoft Copilot for some help.
I’m going to make a public request for people to converse with about the ontology of the human observer and learning. I crave conversations for speculation and learning with people that have similar interests. My post will be on Mastodon. Please suggest hashtags that might help me narrow down an audience. They are likely also going to be hashtags I subscribe to later on.
My prompt does not provide any indication of subject matter beyond ” ontology of the human observer and learning” and is typical of a prompt when I don’t yet know exactly what it is I’m asking for and I’m relying on a generative AI assistant to help. I was surprised by completeness of the answer.
What follows is Copilot’s response pretty much verbatim with some formatting changes only. I believe it’s more useful that way than me sanitising it to a list only.
I have followed most of the tags and am in the process of getting a feel for the content that is showing up. Those which tend towards meditation and self-reflection are so far showing up as platitudes. I have two options to clean these out. Either unfollow the tag, block the individual, or find some other keyword that can be hidden using Ivory. If it takes more time to manage than I’m getting value, I am better off unfollowing the tag.
I’m just at the start of this process. 20+ years ago, I met people by following their blogs. They are harder to find organically these days and I trust this hashtag approach will close the gap.
Here’s the short, clear takeaway: You’ll reach the right people on Mastodon by combining ontology‑of‑learning hashtags, philosophy‑of-mind hashtags, and small‑community academic hashtags that already have active conversationalists rather than just broadcasters.
Below is a curated set grouped by audience type.
🎓 Philosophical & Ontological Inquiry
These hashtags tend to attract people who enjoy deep conceptual exploration, systems thinking, and reflective dialogue.
#philosophy— Broad but active; good for visibility among reflective thinkers.#phenomenology— Strong overlap with observer‑dependent interpretation.#ontology— General ontology discussions; includes both academic and applied.#epistemology— People interested in how observers know what they know.#philosophyOfMind— Good for conversations about interpretation, perception, and being an observer.
🧠 Learning, Sense‑Making & Cognitive Development
These hashtags help you find people who think about learning as a transformation of the observer, not just skill acquisition.
#learning— Broad but includes reflective educators and autodidacts.#metacognition— People who think about thinking.#selfreflection— Often includes practitioners of embodied and linguistic self‑observation.#lifelonglearning— Good for people who enjoy speculative, exploratory conversations.#transformativeLearning— Smaller but highly aligned with ontological shifts.
🧩 Systems, Complexity & Observer‑Dependent Worlds
These hashtags attract people who naturally resonate with the Ontology of the Human Observer because they already think in relational, systemic, or interpretive terms.
#systemsthinking— Very active; great for conversations about observers in systems.#complexity— People who enjoy speculative, emergent, multi‑perspective inquiry.#cybernetics— Strong overlap with second‑order observation and interpretation.#constructivism— Directly aligned with “observer creates world of meaning.”
🧘 Embodied, Linguistic & Mood‑Oriented Practices
These hashtags help you find people who think about learning as shifts in mood, body, and language — very close to the ontology you’re working with.
#embodiment— People exploring body‑based learning and somatic awareness.#mindfulness— Broad but includes reflective practitioners.#somatics— Useful for conversations about embodied practices.#linguistics— For the language-as-action crowd.#moods— Small but surprisingly aligned with ontological moods.
🧵 Smaller, niche hashtags that may be perfect for your topic
These are less populated but more likely to attract exactly the kind of people who want to talk, not just post.
#philosophyDiscussion#deepthinking#reflectivePractice#sensemaking#meaningmaking#innerwork#selfinquiry
These tend to have slower streams but higher‑quality engagement.