Abandon The Twitter Ship! Let's Find An Alternative...

Is Bluesky the new home for me?

It is time to give up Twitter for good.

I wrote a post back in April 2023 about the state of Twitter on the heels of Elon Musk's acquisition of the company and my future on the site. I said at that time that I was going to continue to use Twitter, but I wanted to keep my eyes and ears open on exploring a credible and useful alternative to the site. It has come to the point that the only thing I will ever use Twitter for is to post links to my latest blog posts. The issues with the number of bots, abuse, and hatred on Twitter is now too much for me, and I have decided to move my short-form thought-posting elsewhere. I have deleted Twitter off my phone, which is insane for me to even type here.

So now, the question for me is what social media site is the best alternative to Twitter. Where are all the decent people going to flock to? I think there is a universal agreeance on there being three potential candidate websites that will be the new Twitter. I have accounts on all three of these sites and posted some things on each of these social media networks. I want to talk about each website, my experience in using these websites, and talk about where I stand with each site and whether I will keep using the site going forward. I want to point out that I have had a somewhat decent following on Twitter, and now I must build that following back up again.

Anyways, here are the three sites:

Threads

Threads is the Twitter alternative created by Meta (who owns Facebook and Instagram) in opposition of the Elon Musk takeover of Twitter. The good thing about Threads is that you can import your current Instagram following, so it is not like you must build your following from scratch again. The problem with myself using Threads is that when I was regularly using Twitter, my Twitter following and my Facebook/Instagram following were separate. My friends and family made up most of my Instagram/Facebook following, while other like-minded people made up my Twitter following. I liked to post edgier and more explicit posts on Twitter, and with my friends and family starting to find me on Threads, I could not post those explicit posts on Threads. I feel like Threads will not accurately represent the true me.

Threads has the largest user base of the three sites (due to how easy it was to create a Threads account from your Instagram), but it does not feel like many people consistently use Threads, and the entities that currently use it range from bots to engagement bait and spam. Threads has had a massive drop-off since its launch and I feel like it does not do enough to become its own app. Threads just feels like an extension of Instagram.

Mastodon

When Elon Musk acquired Twitter in October 2022, I went to create a Mastodon account hoping that this was going to be the social network that was going to dethrone Twitter. I tried to keep semi-active on the site for some time, posting links to my blog posts and sharing random thoughts. I also like using the app with its clean interface and ability to explore certain topics and hashtags, though it does lack some of the functionality I came to use on Twitter. There were some people who made the switch over to Mastodon, but I do not think there are enough people on this site to really make Mastodon the true alternative to Twitter. Also, I do not think Mastodon has done enough to convince many others to make the switch from Twitter. To me, Mastodon relegated itself to being the number-two social network to use on my phone, with the first one being…

Bluesky

Bluesky is the decentralized social network that came to prominence in Twitter’s acquisition. Last year, you could only join Bluesky through an invite, and I was eventually one of the lucky ones to get that invite, join Bluesky, and check it out. Nowadays, I believe Bluesky is open to the public. I did not use Bluesky that much at first, but I became more active starting a few months ago and started to build my following. Bluesky’s interface looks exactly like Twitter’s interface, which is great. People (including myself) have gotten so comfortable with Twitter’s look that to use something that was similar was not that daunting of a switch. I also think that Bluesky has that feeling of when I used Twitter back when I was in university and after my graduation. I consider 2011-2014 to be my golden years on Twitter when I (and others) would post the goofiest things imaginable, and there was not much bullying and hatred as what you would see now on Twitter.

When I am on Bluesky, I am just glad that I can use a social network without many bots, spam, bullying, or ads. I do not know if this will stay the same for Bluesky going forward (probably not) but let me enjoy this time while I still can.

So right now, I will probably be the most active on Bluesky, with Mastodon coming in second. The thing that I will need to work on is on rebuilding my following on these new sites. I will also need to find the people that I used to follow on Twitter on these new sites (if they ever created new accounts). These were my experiences on using the three alternative social networks to Twitter.