Reflections on changing social media landscape
Musings at this snap shot of time.
Little over a year ago the social media landscape began the cycle of dramatic disruption after Elon Musk purchased Twitter. It set off a wave of migration out to other platforms including but not limited to Mastodon, BlueSky, Threads and other places.
A year later - things are still shaking out with more twists and turns to come. While Twitter still remains a place where news breaks in real time, recent world events have shown how that platform is so vulnerable to disinformation and misinformation creating uncertainties and difficulties in navigating terrains especially if you are in the world of working in public affairs.
FWIW here are some quick notes of where I personally am in using these platforms. These experiences are also shaping the counsel we are providing to our clients.
More and more I am sharing my political reflections, analysis, and hot takes mostly on BlueSky and Threads. I have really enjoyed the community that is forming on BlueSky as the commentary there is sharp, astute, funny and in many ways reminiscent of early Twitter years. What I especially like about BlueSky is the lack of corporate brands at this point of time. I think that has enabled conversation that feels authentic where people are not trying too hard to impress others.
The conversation is also good on Threads as well. And, I appreciate the functionalities in Threads enabling the sharing of videos and GIFs. That certainly makes it more fun. The main issue with Threads - it still feels crowded with brands and the powers that be have continued to express reservations about sharing political content. That said, the community forming there also feels vibrant.
What is interesting in recent days when a big story broke (i.e. expulsion of George Santos) keeping tabs open for both BlueSky and Threads was helpful in navigating through the stories in real time. At this point Twitter doesn't feel completely necessary to turn on when political news stories are breaking if you have both BlueSky and Threads tabs up in real time on your desktop.
The key issue with BlueSky imho is the inability to share videos and GIFs. I also think the way it has populated the platform through "invite codes" may have stunted its growth. That said, I think invite codes are pretty easy to get now and there is a good amount of energy and activity on that platform.
I am still engaging with Mastodon at times. But, to be transparent my engagement has been waning there because of the continuing issues with federation of servers and lack of quote posting functionalities. The community there is lovely and I think there is good energy there in terms of activism but other platforms feel faster and more efficient in engaging when it comes to issues around politics and policy.
Now I am still using Twitter but the scope of my engagement there is becoming narrower. I continue to share and amplify content from clients and close allies when I can. But, in terms of live events I am now primarily using that platform to get sports related news to stay up to date for my Manchester United, UCLA, 49ers and other sports related news.
In many ways, the way I have drawn down political content on Twitter is very much similar to how I have mostly stopped sharing political content on Facebook (and let me tell you it has done wonder for my mindfulness!). My Facebook TL is now basically kids, cats, and dogs and I love it. Similarly my Twitter TL is becoming more and more catered for sports and I am ok with it because I don’t really feel like I am missing out on key political information.
The problem with Twitter beyond the obvious issues around its ownership is that it's now a very clunky and frankly bad platform to use for public affairs. When you share articles - headlines no longer show up (as well as metadata in previews). The verified system is a complete mess which results in confusion when you are trying to navigate through political stories. That's why I have been advising clients to take a breath when political stories are emerging in that platform, become better and better and discern media disinformation and misinformation and start looking through other platforms while thinking about forming cogent and coherent views and framing around news stories.
If you have read this far down, thank you. And, if you are a staffer, adviser for leaders of Congressional Democrats - strongly urge you to push your bosses to get active on places like BlueSky and Threads (already some are doing great works). One of the key reasons platforms like Twitter, Facebook etc broke out around 2007-08 was because of visionary instinct of leaders like Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Speaker Nancy Pelosi who were extremely aggressive about getting members of their caucuses on these platforms and deploying their staff (like yours truly) to coach up and exhort senior staff in all offices to get behind it. I think we need a similar kind of leadership now from Democrats in Congress so that they are not beholden to the whims of the owner of a single platform to get important news relevant to public interest (and policy) out.
That's what I have for now. Would love to hear what others are thinking in terms of how to navigate through these platforms. Interesting times.