It might be time for something completely new.
The Threads app launched a while back, and I jumped into the fray and started posting. I noticed my follower count kept going up on a daily basis, and a few pundits started sharing insightful posts. (I later realized they were a copy and paste from Twitter or Instagram.)
When the news first broke about Threads and how easy it is to register — since the app just uses your Instagram login — I thought it would become a big hit. I was right, for the most part. The micro-blogging app attracted over 100 million users, exploding in popularity.
As often happens, the initial fervor wore off within days. One recent report suggests the daily active user count (meaning, people who are actually using the app and don’t just have an account) dropped in half over one week. The hype hit a crescendo on July 7 and landed with a thud by July 14. It sits at about 23 million active users right now, compared to 49 million the week before.
I followed that same trajectory of interest, and over roughly the same week. I was posting a few times at first, then experimenting with links and short posts. I started following a few people and scanning their feeds. I even paused my Twitter activity for a bit and focused on the new kid in town, if you can call an app funded by a $754 billion company a kid.
An early summary of the app hit the nail square on the head: Threads doesn’t do anything new. It looks, acts, breathes, walks, talks, and pretends to be Twitter. I don’t think that’s why I’m already bored using the app, though.
Here’s the reason. I’m a little bored with the entire social media space. Post and click, like and follow. Repeat a million times. I’ve mentioned before I’m not looking forward to building up my following yet again on a new app. It’s all starting to remind me way too much of the audio-chat app called Clubhouse, which also forced everyone to build up a following. I remember that weird feeling of trying to trumpet my own brand and then noticing that five people joined my audio chat. The solution? Slowly build up a following, as always. I decided to skip that.
One way to describe social media is that we’re all helping build a vast advertising engine — one follower at a time. We’re doing all of the work and the companies that make these apps reap the benefits. We’re enamored with the idea of having a lot of followers, seeing likes on our posts, and hoping to land in the spotlight and go viral. Meanwhile, Mark Zuckerberg keeps counting his money and softly chuckling to himself about how we’re stupid enough to play along.
Are we stupid? Not really. We’re human. Social media apps know that we’re all trying to seek attention and we’re all information seekers. We want to be informed and we want to inform. The problem is that this digital treadmill keeps running forever, and there’s never an end in sight. That’s really the whole point of social media, to convince us there’s a goal and at the same time never allowing us to reach the goal. It’s perfectly alluring. The Threads app is just the latest never-ending ploy.
Unfortunately, I think it’s starting to unravel.
I’m going to keep using the app and see how it all unfolds. The data suggests a lot of the users tried the app, kicked a few tires, and left. The interface is clean and tidy, and I have yet to see an all-out flame war yet.
I’m sticking around for a while. Just with a bit more awareness about why we keep using these apps, what we hope to gain, and whether someone finally figures out how to make social media apps worth using again. Until then, more treadmill.
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