What would you say at Twitter's funeral?
That's the query my colleagues and I asked over 1,000 people on social media as a part of a campaign broader research project on Twitter migration. Reactions ranged from the profane to the poetic, but a typical theme was that Twitter at its best was truly great, despite its significant flaws…until it wasn't.
“The world is a better place since it existed and a better place now that it no longer exists.”
“It takes so little to destroy so much.”
“I will miss it as much as it could in its best moments, but I will be happy that we can finally move on to healthier spaces.”
For many it was time to go away within the hope of finding a greener world.
Since Elon Musk in October 2022 Twitter, now under the brand Researcher who studies online communities – and speculates where these users might find yourself.
The decentralized social network Mastodon attracted a variety of attention early onwhich saw a big influx of users within the months following Musk's acquisition of Twitter. In July 2023, Meta's microblogging platform Threads gained 30 million users on its first day. In 2023, more Twitter alternatives appeared, a few of which coped well with relatively small user numbers. while others have already closed. But everyone lately the excitement appears to be about right Bluesky.
Looking for the familiar
Bluesky was founded in 2019 as a research project inside Twitter led by then-CEO Jack Dorsey. After Musk took over, the corporate eventually cut ties with Twitter and have become an independent company. Bluesky's goal was to construct one decentralized standard for social media that Twitter could take over sooner or later. In this respect, Bluesky is comparable to Mastodon as each allow the creation of various servers that interact and permit users to maneuver their data and network between servers.
But what does all this mean on your experience on Bluesky? If you're confused by centralized and decentralized social media or simply don't care, Bluesky won't seem much different. It looks and appears like Twitter. Almost every part from Bluesky is currently operated from a single server, bsky.social, meaning you don't must select a server whenever you join and your experience is contained there. Although Bluesky provides that Option for users to host their very own server and subsequently store and control their very own data, most users will experience what they’re used to with traditional, centralized social media.
My research to date for platform migration showed that leaving a platform requires each a compelling reason and an immediately viable alternative. Musk's takeover of Twitter was a compelling case for a lot of users, and since then there have been a variety of policy, design and culture changes which have forced much more users to leap ship.
As for a right away November 2022 alternative, Mastodon had a big head start since Bluesky hadn't launched yet, and when it released in February 2023, it remained invite-only for a couple of 12 months. Threads were only began in July 2023. Although Mastodon has a really engaged user base, particularly amongst those committed to decentralization and user autonomy, there are a variety of aspects which have limited its widespread adoption.
My colleagues and I even have found that even those on Mastodon know the best way to find and join a selected server was the most important challengeand this was enough of a hurdle to maintain many individuals off the social network entirely. Research into the migration of “Academic Twitter,” a broad community of academics connected via Twitter, also revealed that Mastodon’s decentralized structure Challenges created for community constructing and sustained user engagement.
Bluesky's moment
The US election in November now appears to be over the turning point as a compelling reason to go for a lot of X users, together with Changes to Terms of Use on the subject of AI training. And it seems that there are currently other “immediately viable alternatives.”
Bluesky particularly saw it huge growth in Novemberover 20 million users, and on the time of writing this continues to be the case gain multiple users per second.
Although media and public attention focused on Bluesky, Threads, which has nearly 300 million users, even saw more latest registrations in November than Bluesky's entire user base. Still, even Meta seems focused on Bluesky's rise. It has I attempted to integrate functions in threads, that are Bluesky's selling points, equivalent to customizable feeds.
Perhaps Bluesky's growth is especially impressive – and subsequently threatening to meta – since it has come largely by word of mouth. In contrast, Threads has a completely massive promoting platform: Instagram. Not only can Threads users easily use their existing Instagram accounts, but Meta has also began pushing Threads posts to Instagram.
So after I consider these three major Twitter alternatives – Mastodon, Bluesky and Threads – Bluesky's moment actually makes a variety of sense to me. It feels less corporate than Metas Threads and subsequently represents a substitute for Big Tech platforms controlled by billionaires. It also appeals to individuals who consider within the vision of decentralized social media or want the power to manage their data.
At the identical time, nevertheless, the user experience is sort of similar to that of familiar, traditional social media and addresses among the challenges identified with Mastodon, equivalent to the educational curve for selecting a server. An increase within the creation and use of Starter packages on Bluesky – curated lists of individuals to follow – have also accelerated the creation of community and social networks. And the sudden hype surrounding the platform has suddenly energized entire former Twitter communities, equivalent to: Academic Twitterto partially get better.
No single side that dominates all of them
Despite my optimism about Bluesky's continued growth, I don't consider there’ll ever be a “new Twitter.” Fragmentation in social media stays and plenty of persons are very completely happy with Threads or Mastodon and even smaller alternatives that profit from the recent X exodus. And X itself is over 600 million lively monthly users.
These platforms all offer something different, with different communities and priorities, and none is the most effective option for everybody. Additionally, as Bluesky continues to grow, it’s going to inevitably face lots of the same problems that Twitter faced even when the platform was considered the most effective.
But for many who were hoping to “move to healthier spaces” after attending Twitter's funeral, several doors are open to them.
image credit : theconversation.com