As a counterpoint, I joined BlueSky 36 hours ago and - despite being on the right - have had a great welcome (2.2k followers already, compared to my c. 5.5k on Twitter). A whole load of others of us on the centre right - including the first Tory MP - have also joined in the last couple of days.
The enshittification of Twitter you describe is real, and for that reason alone - not for any ideological reasons - it deserves some healthy market competition. BlueSky at least seems to be trying to build a better model.
I'm still on Twitter too, for now, and I'll stay on whichever one wins out. And yes, I was worried by some of the pre Musk censorship and shadow banning on Twitter and elsewhere (GC folk, Great Barrington declaration) But blue ticks and monetisation has been awful, so I think it is worth trying for something better.
Did you try posting controversial stuff yet though? I've seen too many screenshots of perfectly reasonable people and opinions being driven off as hate mongers to feel like risking it
The problem is that twitter has not been a functional social media site for some time. Replies are useless as you only see the paid blue tick vitriol, so discussion is impossible. If you want social interaction you have to go elsewhere.
Bluesky isn’t perfect but discussions are happening and mostly civil. It is a bit echo chambery but starting to broaden out.
Substack is fine for what it is but isn’t social media.
I left X when I was ‘limited’ for saying that cis people were affected by attempts to limit trans people. Just that. Because ‘cis’ is of itself considered an offensive word. Direct censorship was too much for me. I appreciate your argument but I think it’s too late to save X.
A shame, because your presence over there would help it be less of the echo chamber you're describing. I closed my X tab down for the last time this week because it was just too unpleasant to be there any more.
Like I say, I'm not defending Twitter. I've been locked there for most of the last year at least. But it just feels a bit ironic that most of the reason I'm locked down is to avoid repeated pile ons from the "COVID is not over" side - who are now preaching the virtues of Bluesky and KiNdNeSs
For what it's worth, I have seen far more covidian dead ender tweets on twitter in recent weeks than on bluesky. Oh, and the covidiot camp is now 100% RFK on Twitter. The GBD dudes are both rejoicing. Twitter discourse is inane and inflates its self importance.
I joined bluesky a year ago and found it insufferable, but the recent surge of new people has changed the character of the network. I've somehow ended up in a weird corner of the network where people fight about metascience, econometrics, and the meaning of linear regression. I've legitimately learned a lot by hanging out there after I post links to substack.
I'm glad it's working out for you! Like I keep saying I'm certainly not arguing Twitter is a bed of roses - I've deleted my main and am only on my alt at the moment.
I think I'm just questioning to what extent we want to be doing social media (in a 2015 sense) at all. Honestly I feel like I've had enough Engagement to last a lifetime
My experience is that it's just twitter with a much higher average quality of post but I'm consuming or interacting with individuals not trying to find an audience, so it might not work so well for you. Still, it would be lovely if you'd give it a go - I've found about 50% of my twitter favourites there, but the more the merrier.
I think the thing is I genuinely don't know whether I'm "trying to find an audience", or at least not a big one based on 280 character posts - I feel like I've been there and done that. I'm honestly much happier with the sort of interactions here, where I can put out something longer when it suits me, and if I'm wrong or controversial I maybe lose 20 subscribers (like I did with this one) rather than getting dragged in QTs and screenshots for days
I had various things to say to this, most in strong agreement, some in disagreement, but I find it actually boils down to: thanks for everything when covid was so crazy and the comradery even between drs and mathmos was so strong, and don't be a stranger.
Of course I don't expect anyone to agree with all of it, or many to agree with most of it, but I've been wanting to get it off my chest all week. And thanks to you too, like I say I think it was a worthwhile thing going on for a while.
Linked in doesn't get enough mention in this whole situation. I've met and learned from so many experts (as a recruiter my job was to find excellent/talented people and the benefit to myself has been immeasurable) it's changed my life in several ways. A handful of brilliant people on twitter did similar, but I curated my feed so tightly I only looked at those I had on notification, and never at my normal timeline. Probably only ever saw the tweets of a few hundred people at most and that worked great. It's an interesting time but I'm glad all this has brought me to your substack and your linked in!
I have used twitter for years for sport, news and opinions.
To challenge my own internal dialogue, I have consciously followed those with views I instinctively agree with and those that I don't. It is often good to understand why someone's views are different to one's own. And, of course, I follow those who I believe try to be balanced (and have even followed some onto substack!)
The fragmentation of the town hall that is social media into an increasingly nasty and right wing X, a rather limp Threads and a nice liberal Bluesky is a nightmare when trying to form a balanced view. Maybe critical thinking is dying - or maybe it's just a symptom of an increasingly divided society.
I share your concern about polarised echo chambers, but one thing you don't touch on is the increasingly aggressive editorial control exerted on X - selectively boosting and suppressing content, links, etc. In that context your voice has less scope to broaden the debate, and the cost-benefit calculus changes.
Why contribute to attracting more people to this reality-distorting platform (where nowadays users must sign in simply to read your content there)? Participate in conversations in saner parts of the world! Bluesky is one, at least for the time being. If influential folk are not prepared to leave a platform that is overreaching, this dangerous monopoly on editorial control of civil society has nothing to check it.
But I think there's always been a thumb on the scales in terms of which content has been boosted and shadowbanned, it's just in a different direction to how it used to be.
Since I never go to twitter I guess I won't notice a change. BTW - as I understand it, once set up, it would probably add a second or two to your posting routine.
I can’t say I agree but I respect your opinion, which is why I listen to you.
It'll never catch on
As a counterpoint, I joined BlueSky 36 hours ago and - despite being on the right - have had a great welcome (2.2k followers already, compared to my c. 5.5k on Twitter). A whole load of others of us on the centre right - including the first Tory MP - have also joined in the last couple of days.
The enshittification of Twitter you describe is real, and for that reason alone - not for any ideological reasons - it deserves some healthy market competition. BlueSky at least seems to be trying to build a better model.
I'm still on Twitter too, for now, and I'll stay on whichever one wins out. And yes, I was worried by some of the pre Musk censorship and shadow banning on Twitter and elsewhere (GC folk, Great Barrington declaration) But blue ticks and monetisation has been awful, so I think it is worth trying for something better.
Did you try posting controversial stuff yet though? I've seen too many screenshots of perfectly reasonable people and opinions being driven off as hate mongers to feel like risking it
Not yet, and I'm keeping both accounts open for now. I definitely recognise that as a risk.
But Twitter is bad enough (mechanically, not ideologically) that I'm willing to try to see if something new can work.
I’ve subscribed here because I value your opinion, even though - or perhaps because - I sometimes don’t agree with you.
Your voice on Bluesky would be an important balancer, but understand if you don’t want to go through that process again.
But perhaps sign up to blag a username, just in case?
I had (the same) username there for a bit, but I deleted it because it wasn't working for me
The problem is that twitter has not been a functional social media site for some time. Replies are useless as you only see the paid blue tick vitriol, so discussion is impossible. If you want social interaction you have to go elsewhere.
Bluesky isn’t perfect but discussions are happening and mostly civil. It is a bit echo chambery but starting to broaden out.
Substack is fine for what it is but isn’t social media.
Yes and I for one hope that it DOES broaden out.
I left X when I was ‘limited’ for saying that cis people were affected by attempts to limit trans people. Just that. Because ‘cis’ is of itself considered an offensive word. Direct censorship was too much for me. I appreciate your argument but I think it’s too late to save X.
I don't think anything I wrote constitutes a defence of Twitter though. I think I'm maybe more in the Marina Hyde camp that maybe we don't need to do social media at all (or not in the same way) https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/nov/15/trump-america-stars-endorsements-kamala-harris-voters-celebrities
Well perhaps we don’t NEED to but I think we are going to, because connecting with others is a human compulsion.
A shame, because your presence over there would help it be less of the echo chamber you're describing. I closed my X tab down for the last time this week because it was just too unpleasant to be there any more.
Like I say, I'm not defending Twitter. I've been locked there for most of the last year at least. But it just feels a bit ironic that most of the reason I'm locked down is to avoid repeated pile ons from the "COVID is not over" side - who are now preaching the virtues of Bluesky and KiNdNeSs
For what it's worth, I have seen far more covidian dead ender tweets on twitter in recent weeks than on bluesky. Oh, and the covidiot camp is now 100% RFK on Twitter. The GBD dudes are both rejoicing. Twitter discourse is inane and inflates its self importance.
I joined bluesky a year ago and found it insufferable, but the recent surge of new people has changed the character of the network. I've somehow ended up in a weird corner of the network where people fight about metascience, econometrics, and the meaning of linear regression. I've legitimately learned a lot by hanging out there after I post links to substack.
I'm glad it's working out for you! Like I keep saying I'm certainly not arguing Twitter is a bed of roses - I've deleted my main and am only on my alt at the moment.
I think I'm just questioning to what extent we want to be doing social media (in a 2015 sense) at all. Honestly I feel like I've had enough Engagement to last a lifetime
Fair. Substack is social media in its own way. I hope you keep writing here.
Yeah, I get it. I'm just hoping that BlueSky will be defined more by civility than consensus, and you would help with that.
I think you're confusing me with someone else
My experience is that it's just twitter with a much higher average quality of post but I'm consuming or interacting with individuals not trying to find an audience, so it might not work so well for you. Still, it would be lovely if you'd give it a go - I've found about 50% of my twitter favourites there, but the more the merrier.
I think the thing is I genuinely don't know whether I'm "trying to find an audience", or at least not a big one based on 280 character posts - I feel like I've been there and done that. I'm honestly much happier with the sort of interactions here, where I can put out something longer when it suits me, and if I'm wrong or controversial I maybe lose 20 subscribers (like I did with this one) rather than getting dragged in QTs and screenshots for days
Makes sense.
It's unusual (and appreciated) to get responses below the line in this sort of format in my experience - maybe you've hit on something.
I had various things to say to this, most in strong agreement, some in disagreement, but I find it actually boils down to: thanks for everything when covid was so crazy and the comradery even between drs and mathmos was so strong, and don't be a stranger.
Of course I don't expect anyone to agree with all of it, or many to agree with most of it, but I've been wanting to get it off my chest all week. And thanks to you too, like I say I think it was a worthwhile thing going on for a while.
Shame you won't be migrating over. But at least there's Substack.
Linked in doesn't get enough mention in this whole situation. I've met and learned from so many experts (as a recruiter my job was to find excellent/talented people and the benefit to myself has been immeasurable) it's changed my life in several ways. A handful of brilliant people on twitter did similar, but I curated my feed so tightly I only looked at those I had on notification, and never at my normal timeline. Probably only ever saw the tweets of a few hundred people at most and that worked great. It's an interesting time but I'm glad all this has brought me to your substack and your linked in!
Agree completely.
I have used twitter for years for sport, news and opinions.
To challenge my own internal dialogue, I have consciously followed those with views I instinctively agree with and those that I don't. It is often good to understand why someone's views are different to one's own. And, of course, I follow those who I believe try to be balanced (and have even followed some onto substack!)
The fragmentation of the town hall that is social media into an increasingly nasty and right wing X, a rather limp Threads and a nice liberal Bluesky is a nightmare when trying to form a balanced view. Maybe critical thinking is dying - or maybe it's just a symptom of an increasingly divided society.
Either way it's not great.
I share your concern about polarised echo chambers, but one thing you don't touch on is the increasingly aggressive editorial control exerted on X - selectively boosting and suppressing content, links, etc. In that context your voice has less scope to broaden the debate, and the cost-benefit calculus changes.
Why contribute to attracting more people to this reality-distorting platform (where nowadays users must sign in simply to read your content there)? Participate in conversations in saner parts of the world! Bluesky is one, at least for the time being. If influential folk are not prepared to leave a platform that is overreaching, this dangerous monopoly on editorial control of civil society has nothing to check it.
But I think there's always been a thumb on the scales in terms of which content has been boosted and shadowbanned, it's just in a different direction to how it used to be.
Since I never go to twitter I guess I won't notice a change. BTW - as I understand it, once set up, it would probably add a second or two to your posting routine.