Social networks aren’t social any longer, nor even networks really
Threads began as Twitter’s public square challenger but has turned into just another publicity hall
Two bolts of lightning struck the tech world in the last nine months. The first one came out of nowhere on 30 November 2022, with OpenAI’s ChatGPT rocketing to a million users in five days and 100 million in two months. No sooner had the world let out its collective breath, the second bolt thundered in on 5 July 2023, obliterating ChatGPT’s record, with Meta’s social media app warping past the 100 million download mark in just five days. Admittedly, Threads had an unfair advantage, it had a 2.3 billion strong user launchpad in the form of Instagram, and all it had to do was get less than 5% of Insta users to sign up for Threads. Irrespective, it was a striking debut, and Threads seemed poised to overpower Twitter, now renamed X, in the social media cage fight. Zuckerberg had chosen his moment well; users were clamouring for an alternative to Twitter, and Musk also seemed to be doing everything to destroy his new company: renaming it an unwelcome X, laying off almost 75% of the work force, and also antagonizing its users as well as advertisers, both of which are the life blood of any social network.
Less than a month thereon, it was not Twitter but Threads which seemed to be hanging by a thread. As of 31 July, the DAU (daily active user) count of Threads had fallen by a drastic 82%, according to Sensor Tower, a digital intelligence company. Even its usage fell dramatically from 14 sessions per user a day to 2.6 sessions, and the daily average usage time plummeted from 19 minutes to 2.9 minutes. The precipitous fall continues, with its DAU count falling by about 1% a day. I am one of these users. I installed the app on Day 1, and it must have been a week since I went there, and my last post was probably a month back. So, what is happening?
Well, the answer is stark: social networking is neither social, nor it is a network.
The ‘social’ in ‘social network’ refers to conversing with your friends and family, and reconnecting with your school buddies, but that is not what these networks are about any longer. The New York Times’s Brian Chen (bit.ly/3ORaDnh) writes about how posts are not about people updating their friends and family on their lives: “The biggest sites have become increasingly ‘corporatized’. Instead of seeing messages and photos from friends and relatives about their holidays or fancy dinners, users of Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, Twitter and Snapchat (and now Threads) now often view professionalized content from brands, influencers and others that pay for placement."
I remember that I joined Facebook because I wanted to rediscover my old friends, know how and what they are doing and converse with them. I got off it a few years ago, because its Feed became suffused with what Kim Kardashian was up to and mobile phone data plans that I did not want. Facebook (and every other large platform) had become “enshittified" in the immortal coinage of Cory Doctorow (bit.ly/3qOnO0h).
The ‘network’ part of a social network was about your personal acquaintance circle. But it is no longer a network, as it has become more like regular media, like TV or a theatre. The Financial Times’s Elaine Moore explains this very well (bit.ly/3Phf4cE): “Threads is less public town square (that Twitter was) than stage. Zuckerberg doesn’t want us all to be part of the conversation, he wants us in the audience." This trend of transforming a network into media started with TikTok and its algorithm showing you stream after random stream of content from strangers and influencers, and not from friends. Instagram, the mother network of Threads, is all about showing you videos of famous people or soon-to-be famous influencers. The first thing that Musk did after acquiring Twitter was not to change its name, but create a ‘For You’ tab that showed content from people you did not follow. In many cases, that is the default tab that X opens on, and its TikTokization seems to be complete. You don’t post your thoughts much on these accounts; neither do your friends. We just watch what influencers post. The intended audience is strangers.
People needed a new town square; Zuckerberg gave us a new movie theatre. Basically, Threads is nothing but Instagram converted into text. Why would Instagram’s 150 million users who signed up for Threads go to a textified Insta when they could just go back to the app they were used to and see the same stuff there?
For all its faults, X and its ‘Following’ tab still serve as a town square, though a weakened one, and this cage fight seems to be swinging Musk’s way.
Jaspreet Bindra is a technology expert, author of ‘The Tech Whisperer’, and is currently pursuing his Masters in AI and Ethics from Cambridge University
