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One of us is addicted to Twitter; The other, not so much. In the end, we didn’t know how other people could use Threads in the long run.
By Brian X. Chen and Mike Isaac
Brian X. Chen writes Tech Fix, a column about the social implications of the generation we use. Mike Isaac has been reporting on social media for thirteen years.
When we, Brian X. Chen and Mike Isaac, longtime technical news experts, won a project from our editor last week to review Threads, Meta’s new social network, it was like a breath of the past.
We have been writing on social media for over a dozen years. For more than half a dozen of those years, the social media landscape has been largely static, due to the rise of the short-video app TikTok, and governed through Meta, which owns Instagram and Facebook.
The arrival of Threads, of Instagram and designed as a privileged place for public verbal exchanges in real time, interrupts this panorama. While the new app could be a passing fad, it may also pose a serious risk to Twitter, which has retained its crown as a medium of verbal exchange for more than a decade.
But how many of us are hanging out on Threads?We wondered how we would convey it, as one of us, Brian, is a casual Twitter user, and the other, Mike, is a long-time addict, which might be our delight with Meta’s new app. Here’s what we found out about the pros and cons of Threads and whether it may be just a part of your life.
BRIAN Hi Mike! It’s been a while since we did a collaborative review. Years ago, we looked at the new versions of PlayStation and Xbox. And now we’re back in combination, why, again?
MIKE Yes, we are back, this time to browse the social application of the moment, Threads, which is made through Meta. After playing with it for a few days, I’m starting to wonder if I can get rid of my Twitter addiction by replacing it with a “friendlier” social network designed by Mark Zuckerberg, the head of Meta.
For now, I’m enjoying it. But it definitely looks like a light edit from Twitter. No hashtags, with many influencers, and the worst thing is that many other people in my answers do not seem to understand my jokes that look good on Twitter.
Brian, I’m afraid all the other people who come to Threads from Instagram just don’t know how to post.
BRIAN Well, that’s what’s interesting. Threads is a clone of Twitter, but Meta introduces the concept to those who have never tweeted and been on Instagram. Therefore, there will be a delicate phase of acclimatization.
But let me step back for a second. Threads is a free app that you download from Apple or the Google App Store. To set it up, you attach it to your Instagram account. Then, Threads activates you with all your friends on Instagram.
From there, you present a timeline of the posts and can write short memos that are posted for the public to see. You can also embed photos, but it’s in text, just like on Twitter.
What are the differences with Twitter that you noticed?
MIKE It’s like Twitter, but in simple mode.
On the one hand, threads are organized algorithmically, just like Facebook or Instagram. This means that when you log in, you see a bunch of other posts based on your interests, whether they were posted five hours ago or five minutes ago.
This is an update to what we’re used to with Twitter, where the marquee serves as the opposite chronological chronology. This means you see each and every post from the other people you stick to in the opposite order, which has made Twitter indispensable for breaking news and live events.
With Threads, I believe algorithmic curation is intentional on Instagram’s part. They said they were looking to make Threads “easy to use” when other people come in. It sounds a bit sterile to me, but they also don’t bombard me with hate speech and racist diatribes, which is a big plus.
BRIAN For me, Meta’s interest-based ruleset is a major turning point. This has led my kids to feed a pile of posts from accounts I don’t follow, most commonly influencers and brands advertising their products. I see very few messages from my genuine friends.
To be fair, Twitter’s timeline isn’t usually very good either. The quality is deteriorating due to changes in what other people read on the site, adding the requirement to pay $8 a month for a Twitter Blue subscription to have your posts appear on other people’s timelines.
Another big difference between Threads and Twitter: the character limit in Threads is 500 characters, while on Twitter it is 280 characters for single accounts.
Are there more characters?
MIKE I don’t think so. Brevity is the soul of the spirit, right?In my opinion, an impactful tweet comes in brief form, not through an internal blog post, which is meant to be a short post.
Twitter tested this paid Twitter Blue option, where other people can post incredibly long tweets of 10,000 characters. I feel like this is moving away from the starting point of abbreviated Twitter messages. But I’m just a grumpy.
I’m curious: how did it happen to you in Threads, overlaying your Twitter account with your Instagram account?
It was a life-changing experience. I’m very different on my Insta than I am on Twitter. On Insta, I regularly post stuff I cooked that week or the last concert I attended. Twitter is more my area to write about painting and the tech industry, while posting excerpts from my private life. Threads looks like a hybrid of the two, at least for now.
BRIAN This was also complicated for me, so I didn’t post much. Like many people, I switched my Instagram to a personal account years ago because I didn’t need the public to see photos of my family. It has a network of “friends only. “
With Threads, I now have to reconsider what the public percentage would be. It’s a journey.
MIKE I hear you completely. I’ll check it out anyway, but I’m curious if you think it’s going to be the next big thing, especially since you’re a little less active on Twitter than I am.
BRIAN I don’t bet on generation products like horses. But based on my reports on how other ordinary people, who use generation but are obsessed with it, interact with social media, they may not post much on Threads.
The fact is that Twitter is a social network and neither is Threads. Both are streaming platforms that allow major brands, celebrities, politicians, and media outlets to share data with their subscribers.
This type of network does not favor the way other people socialize in communities. In social clubs, other people gather in small teams around non-unusual interests. They don’t cram into a massive convention hall and shout like we do on Twitter and now on Threads.
I have a decent Twitter account that usually knows what I’m going to get from me and understands when I’m joking. But I’m well aware that when one of my tweets goes viral and comes out of this sphere of other people who know me, they’ll misunderstand me one hundred percent, and probably insult me. We call this “the sinking of the context. “
BRIAN Meta knows this too. You reported a few years ago that Mark Zuckerberg said other people were increasingly moving away from the big social media platform to smaller, more isolated networks. These included personal Facebook computers and messaging apps.
MIKE yells at the personal Slack and Discord teams I’m on that involve a handful of close friends.
BRIAN And it all makes sense. People have learned that it is not a smart concept percentage of a lot of non-public data in the public sphere.
Also, if I need to communicate with you, why do I deserve to @ you with you publicly instead of sending you a message?This is probably the most important thing Threads lacks compared to Twitter (direct messaging), which makes Threads an inferior product right now. But it’s only a matter of time until it’s added, as this feature is already a component of Instagram.
MIKE: I think there’s a kind of performative detail to speaking in the public sphere, where my conversations with you take on another tone and meaning, as if we’re speaking at the same level in front of an audience. There’s something funny about it. But it can become very unpleasant very quickly. Messaging, as you’ll notice, is helping fix this.
BRIAN To interact with brands and influencers, text has also lost the battle. The growing popularity of TikTok and Instagram reels is evidence that casual tech users, especially young people, prefer to watch videos of celebrities and influencers they adhere to and read their short text.
Ultimately, comparing Twitter and Threads is tricky because Threads is a component of Instagram, which is much larger than Twitter. If the features improve, I may eventually switch to Twitter Threads due to Instagram’s sheer length, which may bring me more followers. (By the way, I’m @bxchen on Threads. ) But like others, I probably wouldn’t spend much time with friends there.
How about you?
MIKE Right now I’m juggling looking to post other things on six other networks, and it’s not fun. But I guess at least anything will eventually die and I can avoid publishing the posts. At least I hope so.
Go to. . . Threads, I guess?
BRIAN You have to talk to me first, Mike.
An earlier edit of this article incorrectly stated the maximum number of characters in Threads. Each message is limited to 500 characters, 400.
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Brian X. Chen is the client generation editor at The Times. Review and write Tech Fix, a column about the social implications of the generation we use. Before joining The Times in 2011, he reported on Apple and the wireless industry for Wired. Learn more about Brian X. Chen
Mike Isaac is a one-generation correspondent and writer of “Super Pumped: The Battle for Uber,” a best-selling e-book about the spectacular rise and fall of the ride-sharing company. It covers Facebook and Silicon Valley, and was founded in San Francisco. Learn more about Mike Isaac
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