I’m really not surprised that early impressions are it feels like twitter and users behave the same way, Twitter was good for a while but as social media blew up, it became all about engagement, and one thing I’ve been saying for years is negativity spurs engagement. I could sing praises of people all day and nobody cares but if I were to tweet something toxic it would be the talk of the town for a week. I stopped paying attention to notes because it started seeming like twitter. I’ll stick with groups on FB, I suppose
The problem with FB for me is that I left that space in 2016 during an election cycle and I cannot go back. The long rant threads and political memes and just non-stop bullshit--I can't.
I swear you and I are mentally linked--I had the same damn thought this morning reading about Threads. I don’t want to rebuild a new Twitter (BlueSky) but I’ll probably try Threads. Wish I would have spent more time building my Insta, but live and learn. You’re stuck with me wherever you go btw 🤣🖤
I’m glad we will still be in the same social circles! BlueSky is EXACTLY like Twitter. Everyone getting jacked about followers and shitposting. Gives me the ick. I’d love to narrow it down to a few apps!
Nice to have the Threads option—for so many reasons. Leaving the bird is hard as I have made so many contacts there. And, silly as it sounds, I'll miss having a few of the followers that I have NO IDEA how or why they followed me. For instance, Barack Obama (no Steven King, but maybe Threads? 🤣) I know the repeat is highly unlikely. Anyhow, if this new platform has any chance, they'll need to release a desktop or web version soon. Sadly, I don't see that happening —soon. There is STILL no dedicated Instagram app. If you don't want a tiny phone screen version, you have to use the web app. Sad.
The best part? Is leaving all that toxic mess behind. I got WAY too caught up in it and I never brought it to Instagram so Threads should be mostly stress-free. Welcome to the new world!
And, I probably haven't said THIS before but should have. Thank you for all you do for all of us readers and writers. Especially in the horror community. I have a TON of editing to do but hope I will have one, if not two (or more?!) books ready to query in the coming year.
Right?! And I have no idea of how. At least you earned your SK follow. ANd FWIW, I promise I will do my best to keep my feed here free of the political BS so you don't have to mute me. LOL Happy Thursday!
I'm so excited for Threads to launch and I really hope that it goes smoothly. Honestly, my IG community is my favorite community of all of my social media sites - I see the least "discourse" and petty bullshit over on IG, compared to other sites (I'm sure it's just how *my* feed is curated there vs. twitter etc., so it's anecdotal, but ykwim).
Of course, meta/FB/IG isn't perfect by ANY means in how the algorithms work and stuff... but I just hope it's better than twitter because I can't keep supporting it while Musk is in charge 💀
All of these platforms will be problematic. I see that too. Social media will never have the *perfect* social space because humans are flawed and messy. It's just up to us to decide which one will be the best fit for our individual needs. And we won't all agree on that, which is fine. Twitter's shine was dulling long before Musk, for me, he was just the straw that broke the camel's back.
Great post. I completely agree with you. I don’t want to lose anyone on Twitter. My Insta game - I’m starting from scratch for sure. But I am getting into Substack more and more.
All these spaces are going to problematic and we'll have to put up with some level of bullshit, I get that. But I've been using Insta long before the Zuckerberg takeover and so far, it has been the least stressful (toxic/dramatic) for me. Plus, the fact I can keep my audience is a HUGE benefit.
I get it, and I apologize for coming off like an asshole.
The thing is, I resent being tied to these SM platforms--but like many folks a good chunk of my inflow to SS comes from Meta products (Twitter not so much anymore).
And yet Meta’s ethics are hideous, for all the reasons you undoubtedly know about.
But now here we are with yet another data scooper from the little tyrant about to launch.
I’ve been waiting for Croissant from TikTok -- as an alternative to IG (which has devolved during the past year) into a train wreck, but I imagine that’ll be just as toxic.
With such a hopeful post, I feel like I suck being the pessimist, however, Instagram has been its very own shit show for a long time now - especially for photographers, on whom the app has largely turned its back. A desparate attempt of Meta to be the Everything App. I would argue Instagram's algorithm is the most draconian of all the big apps. It's anecdotal, I know, but a strong post of mine, carefully hashtagged, reached only 17 users who didn't follow me. 17. Even if that is intermittent, it is so unreliable as to be unusable. A couple of years ago threads may have excited me, sadly, not now.
It's ok, I totally get where you're coming from. I realize that Instagram used to be a niche platform until Zuckerberg. I remember, I was there before the takeover. The algorithm was *sweet* and now we have all these new features to compete with TikTok and Twitter--however, I used to hate reels and stories and now they are a major part of how I engage with new accounts, so I can't really complain. As a creator, IG is where it's at for me. My longtime audience and community is there. #bookstagram has truly changed my life.
I think far too often it is tempting to take our own experiences and port them over to other users. As a photographer, Instagram worked for me for some time, then became more of a hindrance than a help. That doesn't mean that as it evolves it doesn't become something useful and enjoyable for others, for instance, yourself. It just means it has found a new audience or one that has adapted. Still, the algorithm is a big problem. Why build a following if you can't reach it? It is dispiriting.
I'm a little nervous for threads given how many issues facebook and instagram has as well, but you're right about the followers/following transferring over! I hadn't thought about that. Will see you wherever you end up Sadie!
I am on Threads because I have to be, but I will say -- despite how hard it is to rebuild a following, I still have major concerns about one company having all major social media in its hands. Ok -- I guess aside from TikTok. But still. I am not comfortable with it and I won't be focusing my energy there. It opens us up to far too much fuckery by Meta and I am not here for handing them the keys to everything.
I want to add that I am actually alarmed at how few people have my same concern about this. I didn't like when FB bought Instagram either, but hey... we still had Twitter that wasn't theirs. But if they take up that space too...
I'd love more text based options for social media too, but I'm really wary of the amount of data I give to Meta. Threads isn't going to be available in the EU because Meta doesn't seem to think they've built it in a way that maintains sufficient protections to comply with European data protection laws.
Instagram has always been my platform of choice but I’m planning to check out Threads. I loathe the negativity and general buffoonery found on FB and Twitter. I don’t have a Bluesky invite anyway, but if it’s anything like Twitter, no thank you.
Social media is beginning to feel a bit like streaming. At first there was Netflix, and it's just where everyone went (Facebook). Then Twitter (Amazon Prime) came along and everyone thought "Well, I suppose having two would be good," and then along comes the flashy, fancy Instagram (Disney+) and dazzles everyone so they sign up to that too, even though they don't really have the time (money) for it. But it's good, and people like it, so it does well.
And then comes the wave: Mastodon, Threads, BlueSky, Reddit, Hive, Post, CounterSocial, CoHost (Hulu, Paramount, Shudder, Apple, Peacock, Britbox, WOW Presents) and suddenly your time (money) has to either be spent on getting the most of out of as many as possible, or you have to decide which to concentrate on, meaning others suffer. Some people hop between services a month at a time, only returning to each for a short while when there's something interesting to see.
This leads to a lower overall user base for each service, and therefore reduced revenue. This of course, results in the money saving measures like the cutting of features or an increased ad presence (cancelled TV series, films suddenly being removed), culminating in a mass exodus in search of alternatives.
But when you do that, you realise that what you originally loved about having just one or two services was having all your friends (films) in just a few places, and that is no longer the case. They're split and separated across the web and you have to decide which service to spend your time (money) on one month at a time, because you just can't afford to use all of them all of the time.
The way things are headed, it's just not sustainable for the companies running them (social media and video streaming) OR the users and I feel like something is going to happen soon that will totally change how we do things.
In the meantime, I'll check alternatives out, see what sticks and what doesn't, but I'll always have a fondness for Twitter because it helped me through a difficult time, when I'd moved cities and was desperately lonely, and it also led to making the contacts to get my writing, and eventually an entire short story collection, published.
It makes me desperately sad to see those who helped me through those times, who picked me up when I was feeling down, who recognised me at live events and came over to say hello, who encouraged me to submit work and who cheered for me when I announced my book news, just drift away; some people who I though were actual friends no long seem to even acknowledge me, and a few have stopped following me. One or two of those in particular were like a punch in the gut.
The worst thing is I don't blame them. I blame the algorythms that warp our perspective by governing what appears in our feeds, giving us the illusion that we curate our experience and see what we want to see and not what the company wants us to see.
I'll genuinely mourn the loss of those "friendships", whereas they'll probably never even think about me again and be no worse off for it. And if we do cross paths at an event or on the Next Big Social Media Website, I'll be like "I'm really glad to see you. I've missed you so much," and they'll say "Your face seems familiar. Who are you again? Didn't you do that book about robots? No? Oh sorry, that was someone else." And that's not their fault.
SM has been both the best and worse thing for my mental health and since being diagnosed with ADHD at the grand old age of 47 last year, I understand a but more about why. One of my "favourite" symptoms of is severe Rejection Sensitive Dysphoria, the upshot of which is that my brain converts rejection and criticism - even just the expectation or mistaken perception of them - into pain. I've had sick days off work after someone on SM has said something mean to me, or I've said something and then been so concerned that it's been taken the wrong way, or misunderstood just because my joke/comment/question wasn't immediately followed up with a Like/Retweet/Reply etc, that I have experienced actual physical symptoms.
I thought everyone experienced this until last year, when I happened to say to my wife, "You know when someone shouts at you and you feel it physically, like a slap in the face or a karate-cop to the stomach?" and she said "Er. No. That's not normal you freak of nature."
The flip side of that is that the dopamine hit that my body doesn't produce naturally can be stimulated by nice things like gifts, food, a favourite book/song/film, jokes. Even inconsequential things like Retweets, Likes and Replies feel like a rush, which in some ways they actually are. Exercise also produces dopamine.
Perhaps I should get off Social Media altogether and go for a run instead.
I’m really not surprised that early impressions are it feels like twitter and users behave the same way, Twitter was good for a while but as social media blew up, it became all about engagement, and one thing I’ve been saying for years is negativity spurs engagement. I could sing praises of people all day and nobody cares but if I were to tweet something toxic it would be the talk of the town for a week. I stopped paying attention to notes because it started seeming like twitter. I’ll stick with groups on FB, I suppose
The problem with FB for me is that I left that space in 2016 during an election cycle and I cannot go back. The long rant threads and political memes and just non-stop bullshit--I can't.
I can understand that. I’m mostly there to share book stuff and interact in some reader groups, other than that I don’t use it either.
I swear you and I are mentally linked--I had the same damn thought this morning reading about Threads. I don’t want to rebuild a new Twitter (BlueSky) but I’ll probably try Threads. Wish I would have spent more time building my Insta, but live and learn. You’re stuck with me wherever you go btw 🤣🖤
I’m glad we will still be in the same social circles! BlueSky is EXACTLY like Twitter. Everyone getting jacked about followers and shitposting. Gives me the ick. I’d love to narrow it down to a few apps!
Yes! I agree! Thanks for the Threads rec! Didn’t even know about it and I love Insta!
I love Insta too. It’s stress free!
Nice to have the Threads option—for so many reasons. Leaving the bird is hard as I have made so many contacts there. And, silly as it sounds, I'll miss having a few of the followers that I have NO IDEA how or why they followed me. For instance, Barack Obama (no Steven King, but maybe Threads? 🤣) I know the repeat is highly unlikely. Anyhow, if this new platform has any chance, they'll need to release a desktop or web version soon. Sadly, I don't see that happening —soon. There is STILL no dedicated Instagram app. If you don't want a tiny phone screen version, you have to use the web app. Sad.
The best part? Is leaving all that toxic mess behind. I got WAY too caught up in it and I never brought it to Instagram so Threads should be mostly stress-free. Welcome to the new world!
And, I probably haven't said THIS before but should have. Thank you for all you do for all of us readers and writers. Especially in the horror community. I have a TON of editing to do but hope I will have one, if not two (or more?!) books ready to query in the coming year.
OBAMA IS FOLLOWING YOU?? Woah! That's so cool. Thank you for the kind words. I hope to see you on Threads
Right?! And I have no idea of how. At least you earned your SK follow. ANd FWIW, I promise I will do my best to keep my feed here free of the political BS so you don't have to mute me. LOL Happy Thursday!
I'm so excited for Threads to launch and I really hope that it goes smoothly. Honestly, my IG community is my favorite community of all of my social media sites - I see the least "discourse" and petty bullshit over on IG, compared to other sites (I'm sure it's just how *my* feed is curated there vs. twitter etc., so it's anecdotal, but ykwim).
Of course, meta/FB/IG isn't perfect by ANY means in how the algorithms work and stuff... but I just hope it's better than twitter because I can't keep supporting it while Musk is in charge 💀
All of these platforms will be problematic. I see that too. Social media will never have the *perfect* social space because humans are flawed and messy. It's just up to us to decide which one will be the best fit for our individual needs. And we won't all agree on that, which is fine. Twitter's shine was dulling long before Musk, for me, he was just the straw that broke the camel's back.
I hadn't heard of Threads. How cool.
Like others have said, thank you. I've joined a plethora of platforms recently trying to keep up. Threads sounds like a good solution.
Great post. I completely agree with you. I don’t want to lose anyone on Twitter. My Insta game - I’m starting from scratch for sure. But I am getting into Substack more and more.
I freaking love substack
I’m getting used to it. I can’t wait for Threads tomorrow.
Ugh, more surveillance shit from Zuckerberg. Hard pass. (But good luck!)
All these spaces are going to problematic and we'll have to put up with some level of bullshit, I get that. But I've been using Insta long before the Zuckerberg takeover and so far, it has been the least stressful (toxic/dramatic) for me. Plus, the fact I can keep my audience is a HUGE benefit.
I get it, and I apologize for coming off like an asshole.
The thing is, I resent being tied to these SM platforms--but like many folks a good chunk of my inflow to SS comes from Meta products (Twitter not so much anymore).
And yet Meta’s ethics are hideous, for all the reasons you undoubtedly know about.
But now here we are with yet another data scooper from the little tyrant about to launch.
I’ve been waiting for Croissant from TikTok -- as an alternative to IG (which has devolved during the past year) into a train wreck, but I imagine that’ll be just as toxic.
It’s all a clusterfuck.
With such a hopeful post, I feel like I suck being the pessimist, however, Instagram has been its very own shit show for a long time now - especially for photographers, on whom the app has largely turned its back. A desparate attempt of Meta to be the Everything App. I would argue Instagram's algorithm is the most draconian of all the big apps. It's anecdotal, I know, but a strong post of mine, carefully hashtagged, reached only 17 users who didn't follow me. 17. Even if that is intermittent, it is so unreliable as to be unusable. A couple of years ago threads may have excited me, sadly, not now.
It's ok, I totally get where you're coming from. I realize that Instagram used to be a niche platform until Zuckerberg. I remember, I was there before the takeover. The algorithm was *sweet* and now we have all these new features to compete with TikTok and Twitter--however, I used to hate reels and stories and now they are a major part of how I engage with new accounts, so I can't really complain. As a creator, IG is where it's at for me. My longtime audience and community is there. #bookstagram has truly changed my life.
I think far too often it is tempting to take our own experiences and port them over to other users. As a photographer, Instagram worked for me for some time, then became more of a hindrance than a help. That doesn't mean that as it evolves it doesn't become something useful and enjoyable for others, for instance, yourself. It just means it has found a new audience or one that has adapted. Still, the algorithm is a big problem. Why build a following if you can't reach it? It is dispiriting.
I'm a little nervous for threads given how many issues facebook and instagram has as well, but you're right about the followers/following transferring over! I hadn't thought about that. Will see you wherever you end up Sadie!
thank you :)
I am on Threads because I have to be, but I will say -- despite how hard it is to rebuild a following, I still have major concerns about one company having all major social media in its hands. Ok -- I guess aside from TikTok. But still. I am not comfortable with it and I won't be focusing my energy there. It opens us up to far too much fuckery by Meta and I am not here for handing them the keys to everything.
I want to add that I am actually alarmed at how few people have my same concern about this. I didn't like when FB bought Instagram either, but hey... we still had Twitter that wasn't theirs. But if they take up that space too...
I'd love more text based options for social media too, but I'm really wary of the amount of data I give to Meta. Threads isn't going to be available in the EU because Meta doesn't seem to think they've built it in a way that maintains sufficient protections to comply with European data protection laws.
https://techcrunch.com/2023/07/05/threads-no-eu-launch/amp/
Instagram has always been my platform of choice but I’m planning to check out Threads. I loathe the negativity and general buffoonery found on FB and Twitter. I don’t have a Bluesky invite anyway, but if it’s anything like Twitter, no thank you.
Social media is beginning to feel a bit like streaming. At first there was Netflix, and it's just where everyone went (Facebook). Then Twitter (Amazon Prime) came along and everyone thought "Well, I suppose having two would be good," and then along comes the flashy, fancy Instagram (Disney+) and dazzles everyone so they sign up to that too, even though they don't really have the time (money) for it. But it's good, and people like it, so it does well.
And then comes the wave: Mastodon, Threads, BlueSky, Reddit, Hive, Post, CounterSocial, CoHost (Hulu, Paramount, Shudder, Apple, Peacock, Britbox, WOW Presents) and suddenly your time (money) has to either be spent on getting the most of out of as many as possible, or you have to decide which to concentrate on, meaning others suffer. Some people hop between services a month at a time, only returning to each for a short while when there's something interesting to see.
This leads to a lower overall user base for each service, and therefore reduced revenue. This of course, results in the money saving measures like the cutting of features or an increased ad presence (cancelled TV series, films suddenly being removed), culminating in a mass exodus in search of alternatives.
But when you do that, you realise that what you originally loved about having just one or two services was having all your friends (films) in just a few places, and that is no longer the case. They're split and separated across the web and you have to decide which service to spend your time (money) on one month at a time, because you just can't afford to use all of them all of the time.
The way things are headed, it's just not sustainable for the companies running them (social media and video streaming) OR the users and I feel like something is going to happen soon that will totally change how we do things.
In the meantime, I'll check alternatives out, see what sticks and what doesn't, but I'll always have a fondness for Twitter because it helped me through a difficult time, when I'd moved cities and was desperately lonely, and it also led to making the contacts to get my writing, and eventually an entire short story collection, published.
It makes me desperately sad to see those who helped me through those times, who picked me up when I was feeling down, who recognised me at live events and came over to say hello, who encouraged me to submit work and who cheered for me when I announced my book news, just drift away; some people who I though were actual friends no long seem to even acknowledge me, and a few have stopped following me. One or two of those in particular were like a punch in the gut.
The worst thing is I don't blame them. I blame the algorythms that warp our perspective by governing what appears in our feeds, giving us the illusion that we curate our experience and see what we want to see and not what the company wants us to see.
I'll genuinely mourn the loss of those "friendships", whereas they'll probably never even think about me again and be no worse off for it. And if we do cross paths at an event or on the Next Big Social Media Website, I'll be like "I'm really glad to see you. I've missed you so much," and they'll say "Your face seems familiar. Who are you again? Didn't you do that book about robots? No? Oh sorry, that was someone else." And that's not their fault.
SM has been both the best and worse thing for my mental health and since being diagnosed with ADHD at the grand old age of 47 last year, I understand a but more about why. One of my "favourite" symptoms of is severe Rejection Sensitive Dysphoria, the upshot of which is that my brain converts rejection and criticism - even just the expectation or mistaken perception of them - into pain. I've had sick days off work after someone on SM has said something mean to me, or I've said something and then been so concerned that it's been taken the wrong way, or misunderstood just because my joke/comment/question wasn't immediately followed up with a Like/Retweet/Reply etc, that I have experienced actual physical symptoms.
I thought everyone experienced this until last year, when I happened to say to my wife, "You know when someone shouts at you and you feel it physically, like a slap in the face or a karate-cop to the stomach?" and she said "Er. No. That's not normal you freak of nature."
The flip side of that is that the dopamine hit that my body doesn't produce naturally can be stimulated by nice things like gifts, food, a favourite book/song/film, jokes. Even inconsequential things like Retweets, Likes and Replies feel like a rush, which in some ways they actually are. Exercise also produces dopamine.
Perhaps I should get off Social Media altogether and go for a run instead.
See you there!