> using a social media network, even a free one means giving up some of your privacy
there's no fundamental difference between email and web-based messaging frameworks. a modern web-based messaging framework might even have better privacy guarding features than email, and more useful features by virtue of continued development.
Well the other feature of email in his case is all the GNU email list are archived, you can read his email announcing the GNU project still, I am skeptical any mastodon instance will still be running in 30 years. Mastodon as a whole may still exist, but instances come and go.
there's no fundamental difference between email and web-based messaging frameworks. a modern web-based messaging framework might even have better privacy guarding features than email, and more useful features by virtue of continued development.