I’ve stopped posting on all social media. If anything, I’m now a lurker. I peruse Twitter/X because I’ve curated my feed to the essentials, and far too many people I follow have not moved to a different platform like Bluesky yet. I continue to skim Bluesky because I’m trying to see if enough of the people I follow on other platforms have finally migrated to Bluesky. Threads and Mastodon are essentially dead to me.

Matt Birchler agrees with me.

I believe Meta that there are hundreds of millions of people signing on every month, but they seem to be doing absolutely nothing there. More interesting stuff is on Bluesky and Mastodon, and better conversation happens on those platforms as well.

For most people, the solution for a Twitter-like social media microblog is Bluesky. The more tech-savvy can have Mastodon. Threads was surpassed by the look and feel of Bluesky. People wanted Twitter. Threads sort of scratched that itch, but ultimately, it did not quite meet the demand. Bluesky did.

John Gruber explains it this way.

In the old world, there was one Twitter-like network that mattered: Twitter itself. In the new world, there exists a diaspora of Twitter-like platforms which have each carved out their own vibes. There are pros and cons to the old world and new. I found it much easier, mentally, to have just one place to check, and that place was available through truly excellent native apps for both Mac and iOS. Now that my attention is spread across multiple such networks — (in order of attention) Mastodon, Bluesky, Threads, and, last and definitely least, but still there, X — I feel more scattered mentally, but I’m also pretty sure I spend less time overall using all of them combined today than I did for Twitter’s peak decade-or-so, and that I’m better off for that.

But so while Threads bursting onto the scene in summer 2023 maybe delayed Bluesky’s blossoming, I suspect Threads might have ultimately helped Bluesky by opening the minds of many Twitter refugees into just trying some new alternatives. One size doesn’t fit all. Nor one social network.

Yup.