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
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 🤣🖤
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!
I feel the same way about Bluesky. I’m seeing what they do to the beta mode and I like the not-for-profit mission but the culture seems the same as Twitter so I don’t want to hang around there much. Same angry mobs, drama and I got my first sarcastic comment making fun of me to be edgy, don’t need that stuff there too. I am not into the other platforms either even though I have accounts.
I love Instagram though, Threads sounds intriguing!
I'd avoided Instagram for many years only because I couldn't deal with the idea of doing yet another social feed. But Twitter's pretty much imploding, and Threads seems like it could be a very good substitute. Went ahead and signed up for Instagram this morning, and will jump on Threads when it launches in a few days.
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).
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.
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.
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.
Slowly Letting Go of Twitter...Picking Up Threads
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
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 🤣🖤
Yes! I agree! Thanks for the Threads rec! Didn’t even know about it and I love Insta!
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!
I feel the same way about Bluesky. I’m seeing what they do to the beta mode and I like the not-for-profit mission but the culture seems the same as Twitter so I don’t want to hang around there much. Same angry mobs, drama and I got my first sarcastic comment making fun of me to be edgy, don’t need that stuff there too. I am not into the other platforms either even though I have accounts.
I love Instagram though, Threads sounds intriguing!
I'd avoided Instagram for many years only because I couldn't deal with the idea of doing yet another social feed. But Twitter's pretty much imploding, and Threads seems like it could be a very good substitute. Went ahead and signed up for Instagram this morning, and will jump on Threads when it launches in a few days.
See you there!
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).
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.
Ugh, more surveillance shit from Zuckerberg. Hard pass. (But good luck!)
I hadn’t heard of Threads but it sounds like something more manageable than the Bird Place replacements.
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.
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.
https://techcrunch.com/2023/07/05/threads-no-eu-launch/amp/