I will not be on Threads. I was completely addicted to Twitter, scrolling hours away each day until I left it in December when Musk went full asshole to the journalists around the ElonJet account reporting.
But I excised Facebook out of my life years ago, and I used the hosts file on my computer to block all the tracking and ad serving shit Meta does, and it runs to 400+ lines of domains and servers that are literally everywhere tracking everything you do.
Twitter had none of that infrastructure, and as far as I could tell, didn't do any tracking outside of the app and the web page. I just blocked the *.twitter.com domain and it was gone, eliminating the temptation to jump back in.
(I tried to do that with Google's tracking and ad shit, but when you block that much, a lot of the internet stops functioning. That is the true cancer on the internet.)
Wonderful article. Twitter between 2011-2014 was such a fun place to be. Thanks for giving Weird Twitter a shout out. I miss it. Bluesky feels alot like the Weird Twitter of old.
I enjoy testing out new social media sites, and I actually love Instagram, but I can't imagine ever using Threads. Besides the terrible interface (with way too much white space, which requires WAY too much scrolling), my Instagram follows are all (1) people I know personally, (2) wombat and other wildlife rescue accounts, and (3) people who have whippets/greyhounds like I do. The group in (1) is the only one I'd be interested in viewing text posts from, and there aren't that many of them anymore. Looking at Mastodon, Bluesky, and even T2, I already have plenty of Twitter replacements (I left Twitter when Elon took over, and it feels great). I just don't see a reason for Threads to exist.
It didn’t take long to notice how irritating this app is. It feels like the new drug in town .. even though there were many of my followers and those I follow testing the waters it seems designed to encourage endless scrolling and after a while .. emptiness . I am happy here at Substack and engagement with meaning is something that Threads does not seem to offer . I have no patience for empty content . Thanks for weighing in on this
The last social network that tried to launch and scale quickly was Google+. I'm getting distinct Google+ vibes from Threads. Brands are already there, established creators already there, trying to see if this sticks. Google bought a bunch of game companies because social gaming was hot on Facebook at the time.
The problem is that we don't have a lot of examples of social networks just blasting out the gate and maintaining growth. Network effects take time to build. Any two-sided marketplace has a chicken-and-egg problem, and Google (and now Meta) tried to solve this by stocking their networks with fertile hens, but breaking old habits and creating new ones requires patience, triggers to act, and new rewards every time they visit.
TikTok and Instagram didn't come out of nowhere. They built over years. Ideally, Meta shouldn't care how many people sign up on day one -- it's about how many are visiting on day 100.
I suddenly remembered Dailybooth from years ago when YouTubers were hyping up this platform. It was going to be huge but was very quickly loaded with trolls and then suddenly it was gone.
Anyway, can we just go back to emailing each other to stay in touch and forget about social media?
A lot of the criticism surrounding Threads is leaving out that it intends to adopt ActivityPub. If that happens, then Threads will only be one experience and people can use a Mastodon client or micro.blog, etc. for a different way to view the content they want to see. Threads’ algorithm vs chronological orders, different feature sets, etc.
The one thing I’m noticing is how many people I know are exploring Threads and trying to figure out what they want to do with it. They seem to be enjoying themselves with it and I think it’s great. Eventually, the memes and other forms of creativity will show up. We just have to remember that the word tweet, and the concept of retweeting weren’t invented by Twitter but a developer and users.
I’m thinking Threads is more of an introduction to microblogging and people will mature and start using a different client or service that fits the experience they are wanting.
"I decided not to follow anyone. And so, for the last couple days, I have only been seeing the raw machinery of Threads. Its algorithm is just blasting me with random posts and, every so often, it tries to show me more of a particular user I click on or spend too long reading in the feed.
My verdict: Threads sucks shit."
You don't give it data, so the result are result with... no data from you.
Your incorrect use of it, doesn't make it bad.
To be clear, this isn't a defense of threads, my personal verdict is still out until a shakedown period has happened. But I find the argument you put forth is a poor one.
I gotta disagree with your take on Threads, at least a bit, particularly given that you're complaining about the content... but you didn't follow anyone. It's like the old lotto 'n' God joke; "Meet me halfway, Moshe, buy a lotto ticket!"
Also re: "...its notifications tab is a mess that flattens everything into one pointless interaction number on your phone"
I dunno about iOS, but on Android, I have four different notifications filters: All, Replies, Mentions, and Verified, which... seems reasonable, especially for v1?
And sure, a lot of the default creator content, brand content is cringe, I agree with you on that. But I'm also following smart science people, talented artists, and other interesting folk. And okay, maybe it's a honeymoon period, but I'll even take a Disneylandesque tone over the hellish hateful hellscape that Twitter was (and that got only worse under Elon).
"[T]his whole race to build a new Twitter will just result in a bunch of increasingly-smaller versions of the same app, used by different groups."
This is plausible, but if there is a shift to decentralized social networking, it might matter less... You'd still be able to see posts from other apps operating on the same protocol, but which would each have their own culture and moderation rules.
I will not be on Threads. I was completely addicted to Twitter, scrolling hours away each day until I left it in December when Musk went full asshole to the journalists around the ElonJet account reporting.
But I excised Facebook out of my life years ago, and I used the hosts file on my computer to block all the tracking and ad serving shit Meta does, and it runs to 400+ lines of domains and servers that are literally everywhere tracking everything you do.
Twitter had none of that infrastructure, and as far as I could tell, didn't do any tracking outside of the app and the web page. I just blocked the *.twitter.com domain and it was gone, eliminating the temptation to jump back in.
(I tried to do that with Google's tracking and ad shit, but when you block that much, a lot of the internet stops functioning. That is the true cancer on the internet.)
Read this at a breakneck pace because it was exactly what I was hoping to see you write. You literally hit the nail on the head.
Threads is pre-seasoned for ads. When they implement we’ll get to see the true form in all its glory, too
Wonderful article. Twitter between 2011-2014 was such a fun place to be. Thanks for giving Weird Twitter a shout out. I miss it. Bluesky feels alot like the Weird Twitter of old.
I enjoy testing out new social media sites, and I actually love Instagram, but I can't imagine ever using Threads. Besides the terrible interface (with way too much white space, which requires WAY too much scrolling), my Instagram follows are all (1) people I know personally, (2) wombat and other wildlife rescue accounts, and (3) people who have whippets/greyhounds like I do. The group in (1) is the only one I'd be interested in viewing text posts from, and there aren't that many of them anymore. Looking at Mastodon, Bluesky, and even T2, I already have plenty of Twitter replacements (I left Twitter when Elon took over, and it feels great). I just don't see a reason for Threads to exist.
It didn’t take long to notice how irritating this app is. It feels like the new drug in town .. even though there were many of my followers and those I follow testing the waters it seems designed to encourage endless scrolling and after a while .. emptiness . I am happy here at Substack and engagement with meaning is something that Threads does not seem to offer . I have no patience for empty content . Thanks for weighing in on this
I loved this so hard my phone’s screen cracked. I’ve got to learn how to curb my enthusiasm while reading.
The last social network that tried to launch and scale quickly was Google+. I'm getting distinct Google+ vibes from Threads. Brands are already there, established creators already there, trying to see if this sticks. Google bought a bunch of game companies because social gaming was hot on Facebook at the time.
The problem is that we don't have a lot of examples of social networks just blasting out the gate and maintaining growth. Network effects take time to build. Any two-sided marketplace has a chicken-and-egg problem, and Google (and now Meta) tried to solve this by stocking their networks with fertile hens, but breaking old habits and creating new ones requires patience, triggers to act, and new rewards every time they visit.
TikTok and Instagram didn't come out of nowhere. They built over years. Ideally, Meta shouldn't care how many people sign up on day one -- it's about how many are visiting on day 100.
I suddenly remembered Dailybooth from years ago when YouTubers were hyping up this platform. It was going to be huge but was very quickly loaded with trolls and then suddenly it was gone.
Anyway, can we just go back to emailing each other to stay in touch and forget about social media?
Via @AmandaNatividad's excellent piece today, here's how to view people you follow at the top of the feed:
Settings > Notifications > Threads and replies > then under “First threads” change the toggle from “From everyone” to “From people you follow.”
"It has a distinct celebrities-making-videos-during-COVID-lockdown vibe." This take is just extremely correct.
A lot of the criticism surrounding Threads is leaving out that it intends to adopt ActivityPub. If that happens, then Threads will only be one experience and people can use a Mastodon client or micro.blog, etc. for a different way to view the content they want to see. Threads’ algorithm vs chronological orders, different feature sets, etc.
The one thing I’m noticing is how many people I know are exploring Threads and trying to figure out what they want to do with it. They seem to be enjoying themselves with it and I think it’s great. Eventually, the memes and other forms of creativity will show up. We just have to remember that the word tweet, and the concept of retweeting weren’t invented by Twitter but a developer and users.
I’m thinking Threads is more of an introduction to microblogging and people will mature and start using a different client or service that fits the experience they are wanting.
"I decided not to follow anyone. And so, for the last couple days, I have only been seeing the raw machinery of Threads. Its algorithm is just blasting me with random posts and, every so often, it tries to show me more of a particular user I click on or spend too long reading in the feed.
My verdict: Threads sucks shit."
You don't give it data, so the result are result with... no data from you.
Your incorrect use of it, doesn't make it bad.
To be clear, this isn't a defense of threads, my personal verdict is still out until a shakedown period has happened. But I find the argument you put forth is a poor one.
I gotta disagree with your take on Threads, at least a bit, particularly given that you're complaining about the content... but you didn't follow anyone. It's like the old lotto 'n' God joke; "Meet me halfway, Moshe, buy a lotto ticket!"
Also re: "...its notifications tab is a mess that flattens everything into one pointless interaction number on your phone"
I dunno about iOS, but on Android, I have four different notifications filters: All, Replies, Mentions, and Verified, which... seems reasonable, especially for v1?
And sure, a lot of the default creator content, brand content is cringe, I agree with you on that. But I'm also following smart science people, talented artists, and other interesting folk. And okay, maybe it's a honeymoon period, but I'll even take a Disneylandesque tone over the hellish hateful hellscape that Twitter was (and that got only worse under Elon).
"[T]his whole race to build a new Twitter will just result in a bunch of increasingly-smaller versions of the same app, used by different groups."
This is plausible, but if there is a shift to decentralized social networking, it might matter less... You'd still be able to see posts from other apps operating on the same protocol, but which would each have their own culture and moderation rules.
Fantastic piece, thank you for putting all of this in perspective.
I thought Lemon8 was supposed to be their Instagram clone specifically, not a Twitter clone?