> The main hurdle has been that people migrate in packs and until recently weren’t migrating fast enough. If they do, and Saperia is right, Bluesky and Threads (which now has 175 million active monthly users), will ultimately supplant X. Will it be the same? It can’t be – the free-for-all of the open web, from which Twitter created its famous “town square” discursive experience (anyone could chat, and look, the Coastguard Agency and CNN were also right there) has been replaced by a social media idea Saperia calls the “dark forest” and Wang describes as “you find your people in small spaces, and work together to build an experience that you want – basic human building blocks of interaction”. What do you think? And no mention of decentralized social, I think it probably is included in the idea of the “dark forest” - gm ;)
I think it is totally bonkers that journalists blame social media for people protesting against immigration. What‘s the mental model here? That people are like zombies, unaffected by their environment, but if the big bad evil Elon flips the switch they get angry and burn shit? Same as always: People protest stugf because they are unhappy! And that is because of bad politics. Fix the issues and you won‘t see „social media sowing division!“
I once listened to an interview with a former CIA agent and they asked him about China and Russia using social media to spread dissent in the US. And he said something like: 'They do it but they don't create this tension out of thin air. They just amplify the sentiments that are already there. They put gas on fire.' I think with Twitter it's the same - when people are unhappy and can say it out loud, it's just becoming more visible and amplified. But as Tim said - if there wasn't a real problem in the first place, it wouldn't work. Ofc a centralized media model where big newspapers and TV stations can cooperate with governments to shape the narrative is - on the surface - more stable. But imo it's more like a cover for the boiling pot.
In her book Doppelganger, Naomi Klein wrote something like "Conspiracies flourish because they get the feelings right, the facts wrong." Social media is a great place to amplify them. Of course, there is also the incentive to keep people on the platform as long as possible... and if rage bait does that better than cat pics, then that's what the algo will surface more.