Cal Hates Threads

Meta recently announced its new text based product, Threads. This is designed to be a Twitter alternative, however this attempt has the backing of Meta and the interoperability with Instagram. This is supposed to be the game changer that will allow this app to succeed where others like Mastodon and Blue Sky have failed.

Threads offers a few differentiators that it believes will make it more successful than earlier Twitter clones. First, it has the backing of Meta, meaning it is likely to be well capitalized, able to focus on functionality first and worry about generating revenue down the line. This means that at least in theory, they can offer a smoother operating, and better managed product to the consumer when compared to Twitter. Second, Threads is able to build an instant community by allowing users to quickly transfer their accounts from Instagram onto the new platform. Notably, this is important in bringing over larger influencers who drive traffic to the sites. Now an influencer can take the following they have built over years on Instagram and instantly plug it in on the new app. The theory being that if enough big players join their followers will come to the site and stick around long term. Bigger names in the social media space have applauded this and are already benefiting, whereas they may have struggled to build a following on other platforms.

Time will tell if Meta is successfully able to deliver a superior product. The odds are in their favor, Twitter has been suffering from a seemingly increasing amount of outages and issues, not to mention the lack of content moderation making the platform unusable for certain users. I have no doubt that given the massive amounts of experience and resources being deployed to Threads they can deliver. Typically, this would be all that is needed, if Threads is a better product than Twitter people will make the switch. However, based on my experience so far, Threads is not turning out to be the product they promised.

On the day of the public release, I downloaded the app. I then followed the simple steps linking it to my Instagram account and away I was. I immediately followed everyone I currently follow on Instagram, this at the time seemed better than scrolling through the entire list and selecting who I thought could deliver good text based content. I then went through the feed. Not long after I had lost my interest. Not because there wasn't any content. There was tons of it already. However, it was the same content I was already getting on Instagram, often times pictures included.

I liked Twitter way back when, I am rarely on it now, but do occasionally go there when I am looking for specific content. It is this specific content that Twitter is known for and is exactly why it succeeded. Just look back to recent history, there was an entire era where news was broken on Twitter and it seemed like we had achieved a true democratization of journalism. It was an easy way to share little bits of information about events as they happened in real time. It was exciting and it was an experience unlike any other on the internet at the time. I still, rightly or wrongly, look to Twitter for this. As a result, I follow very different people on Twitter as I do on Instagram.

In my short time using the new Threads, I have spent the bulk of my time unfollowing certain creators or brands. Not because I no longer like their content, I will continue to follow them on Instagram, but because that is not what I want out of a Twitter alternative. I want the same content I was going to Twitter for, just without the baggage Twitter carries around today. This means I want to follow journalists and thought leaders, I don't want to follow a travel influencer who show off their adventures through images or a photographer. To get this content that I want, I will still have to start from square one and find new people to follow, now I just have to do that amidst a stream of posts better suited for Instagram.

At least today, Threads doesn't feel new or exciting. It comes off as a Instagram rebrand. I understand I may have dug this very grave I stand in, but I can't be the only one hoping this would have been more. To me it seems that Meta has copied yet another product and has sought to use its scale to make it a success. I feel this is exactly what will cause this to fail. For now the headlines will continue to say that Meta has seen record signups. On the platform, however, we will just see Instagram influencers copy content on a new platform. Some I am sure will appreciate the move to a text based platform, others will stick to images and eventually everyone will find their home. Unfortunately this will all happen in the public square and far too many people will fall for Mark Zuckerberg's sleight of hand trick which will ultimately not be the big product the media by touting their release numbers would like you to believe.

In the first 30 seconds of using the app, I made it unusable for me. I have spent the remainder of my time trying to fix this, I would have preferred to start over. There is something fun and exciting about a new social platform, this is where you can truly build a new community because I may get lead down new rabbit holes that expose me to new places. Instead I am in the same place I am on Instagram, this app just doesn't have reels, something my weekly screen time notification will remind me of.

July 10th, 2023

Note: I understand, particularly in the content moderation and user data spaces Meta does not have clean hands. Proclaiming Meta as the White Knight to save public discourse shows our collective amnesia. Neither Twitter today nor Meta in the past are companies to look up to, and both of which are still well trafficked. We as a society have to this point accepted these flaws, and perhaps they are unavoidable in this environment I just think it is appropriate to remember the history as we debate in the present.