Individuals are leaving Twitter (sorry, “X”) and are flocking of their hundreds of thousands to Bluesky — however what’s the new social media app?
As soon as upon a time, there was a cute little app referred to as Twitter. Okay, it wasn’t that little and it wasn’t at all times that cute. But it surely did have candy little birdie as its brand and logging on did not at all times make you need to instantly gouge your eyes out.
All the pieces modified when Elon Musk took over the corporate in 2022. The little birdie was banished. As a replacement, an ominous “X” that vaguely resembled a cranium and crossbones. As a substitute of a feed crammed with mates and friends-of-friends, our timelines had been quickly overrun by vicious AI bots and advertisements, whereas the true individuals all appeared like they needed to destroy one another with essentially the most vicious phrases they might muster.
It is no marvel that many individuals jumped ship. By March of this yr, the variety of individuals utilizing the app each day had dropped by virtually a fifth, as reported by NBC Information. Final week, the Twitter exodus was ramped as much as a brand new degree. The day after the US election noticed the most important drop in customers since Musk’s takeover. Musk’s marketing campaign to deliver Donald Trump again into the White Home have confirmed to achieve success and, apparently, many Twitter/X customers not needed any half in it.
Amidst this mass retreat from X, a brand new social media platform has sprung up from the ashes: Bluesky. The app has skyrocketed, welcoming 1,000,000 new customers because the election. With it is pleasant blue and white butterfly brand and the refreshingly genial interactions on the timeline, the app looks like a breath of contemporary air after the minefields of X. Or maybe, one may say, it feels just like the clouds have parted to disclose a sunny blue sky. However what precisely is it?
What’s Bluesky?
Developed by Jack Dorsey, a co-founder of Twitter, and led by Jay Graber, Bluesky is a decentralised social media platform. What does that imply? Whereas most social media platforms are “closed,” Bluesky provides its customers the liberty to create and construct with independence. In different phrases, customers can create their very own servers the place they retailer their very own knowledge and set their very own guidelines. This implies you possibly can be part of particular servers that cater to your pursuits.
You can too keep on the principle server, Bluesky Social, and get the Twitter expertise.
Is Bluesky actually just like the “outdated” Twitter?
Bluesky actually feels just like the Twitter of yore. After the trenches of Musk’s X the place a fast scroll by way of the very offended, usually sexist timeline left you feeling bruised and war-torn, Bluesky looks like a refreshing stroll by way of a sunny meadow.
Most of what I’ve seen on there thus far is both pleasant or humorous and, as a rule, related to me and my pursuits.
Why? For one factor, the algorithm is extra just like the “outdated” Twitter algorithm, whereas X’s algorithm has a behavior of prioritising its Premium members. X has additionally grow to be overrun with bots — take a look at any standard tweet and you will find numerous bot replies within the feedback. The truth is, though Musk promised to scale back spam bots when he first bought the platform, in 2023, he introduced he could be permitting bots with “good content material” to stay and, as of September 2023, there have been reportedly extra energetic bots on the platform than ever. Musk hasn’t instantly commented on this, however he’s seemingly conscious of the difficulty: in August 2024, he tweeted, “Are you continue to seeing plenty of bots in replies?”