Hard to tell from my phone but are there any sources for the ‘exodus’ numbers? I don’t get the same impression that this post is laying out.
Doctorow is engaging in an awful lot of wishcasting here.
Social Quitting
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Re: Social Quitting
#12Hard to tell from my phone but are there any sources for the ‘exodus’ numbers? I don’t get the same impression that this post is laying out.
It’s a vibe shift. The hard numbers may not be there (yet?), but the early signs are.
Facebook has been dead for years, unless you count instagram. Twitter never actually caught on with the normies. Gen Z is on TikTok.
In my friend groups everything that used to happen on Facebook now happens on private WhatsApp, iMessage, and Slack groups.
Re: Social Quitting
#13> As I type these words, a mass exodus is underway from Twitter and Facebook.
No. Given that the number of Twitter users is increasing the premise of this article is false.
Re: Social Quitting
#14Re: Social Quitting
#15Hard to tell from my phone but are there any sources for the ‘exodus’ numbers? I don’t get the same impression that this post is laying out.
It’s a vibe shift. The hard numbers may not be there (yet?), but the early signs are. Facebook has been dead for years, unless you count instagram. Twitter never actually caught on with the normies. Gen Z is on TikTok. In my friend groups everything that used to happen on Facebook now happens on private WhatsApp, iMessage, and Slack groups.
> Twitter never actually caught on with the normies.
Does not need to. That's where all journalists look for news. Normies then get their news from journalists. The circle is complete.
Re: Social Quitting
#16> "Twitter got bought out by a low-attention-span, overconfident billionaire who started pulling out Jenga blocks to see whether the system would fall over, and when it did, we all got crushed by the falling blocks."
I've spent years mocking Twitter for it's short character limit (designed IMO for the low-attention-span trend) and the siloizing/bunkering effect of Facebook and groups (where never a contrary opinion is tolerated, much like with many of Reddit's subreddits). As an experiment I created a Twitter account for the first time when Musk took over the platform.
It's not terrible but not great either - there are some decent sources of information and interesting accounts to follow, but the search function is still very poor, and there's what feels like a lot of algorithmic optimization of engagement going on. Finding interesting and informationally accurate accounts to follow is a bit of a struggle, but once you do it's not too bad. I doubt it was drastically different in the past.
Re: Social Quitting
#17Earlier quoted context omitted.
It’s a vibe shift. The hard numbers may not be there (yet?), but the early signs are. Facebook has been dead for years, unless you count instagram. Twitter never actually caught on with the normies. Gen Z is on TikTok. In my friend groups everything that used to happen on Facebook now happens on private WhatsApp, iMessage, and Slack groups.
> Twitter never actually caught on with the normies. Does not need to. That's where all journalists look for news. Normies then get their news from journalists. The circle is complete.
I agree. But a thriving social network that does not make.
Re: Social Quitting
#18> these social media sites are contracting at an alarming rate.
Really? At what rate? Also, “contracting” would mean net outflow of users; are Twitter and FB experiencing that?
Re: Social Quitting
#19Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Twitter never actually caught on with the normies. Does not need to. That's where all journalists look for news. Normies then get their news from journalists. The circle is complete.
I agree. But a thriving social network that does not make.
A social network does not have to dominate the whole world to be useful and profitable.