THREADS: Taking Social Media by Storm
July 09, 2023
Social Media
What is the new Threads app?
The parent company of Facebook, Meta released its new texting based social media app, Threads. In just less than 24 hours, it has already accumulated a whopping 30 million users. Outlets have reported that the app is evidently on its way to surpass Chat GPT in number of downloads, which according to The New York Times, was only a million within five days. As social media users conveyed their joy over the newly released platform, many others have also shown confusion as to how and why Threads has suddenly blown up, and if this would ultimately replace Twitter as a whole.
How did the Threads app come to be?
Twitter’s downfall arguably may have started even before Elon Musk’s acquisition of the company. Despite its huge popularity and user base, the platform has reportedly been in debt, which triggered its ownership change. Many voiced out concern if Twitter under Elon Musk’s mercy would be beneficial. If time were to tell us anything about this, it would actually scream out a big hearty “NO!”
Musk wanted to monetize every possible feature on the application in order to save the company. This includes even more advertisements, paying to get a verified mark, and making users pay in order to remove a daily tweet and tweet viewing limit.
elon joking as if the tweet limit is some funny quirky way of getting ppl to touch grass is so annoying bc a lot of us aren’t just chronically online lol the internet is how so many businesses, artists, & entrepreneurs make their living. hes rlly taking food off ppl’s tables
— Dulsè 💎 (@JadeDaGem) July 2, 2023
The Twitter population did not receive this quite well, and even came forward with their frustrations. Some are even claiming to now hate the app over its nonsensical monetization of the blue verified mark as tons of fan accounts are abusing this feature, as well as the more frustrating daily tweet limit since this essentially puts a rather big halt to online businesses that use Twitter.
Rate limits increasing soon to 8000 for verified, 800 for unverified & 400 for new unverified https://t.co/fuRcJLifTn
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 1, 2023
If one wanted to tweet more than the given limit a day, they would obviously have to get verified. This however costs money (not to mention how tweets are still limited as a verified account).
This whole debacle gave Twitter the short end of the stick, and as people say, there is a right place and right time for everything. Threads is no exception to this. The sudden downfall of the blue bird gave way, and in a sense, a big giant door for Threads to pass through and become a success.
Why do users love Threads so much?
The cries and pleas for help from social media users have been heard. Meta has served and given us Threads. The new app is already challenging the well-established platform Twitter, and is giving the users what they want. Threads users have been reporting much more engagement from their low-follower accounts on the app. This is considered a big upgrade compared to their high-follower account engagements from other platforms such as Twitter.
Moreover, Threads was created by the Instagram team, which means that one can access their Threads accounts through Instagram. This also indicates that one is already verified as themselves once they create their account. As these two apps are connected, a person’s following/follower list is also carried over from the two platforms. This essentially eliminates the problem of having to build another reputation on a new social media platform from scratch, which is a huge obstacle for new social media apps as a whole, and is most probably the reason why you haven’t heard of new social media app releases until now.
Some are not happy about the success of Threads
Despite the huge success that followed Threads, many still badmouthed the platform. This includes Twitter’s very own CEO, Elon Musk. Due to the similarities of both apps, the entrepreneur claims that Threads is not friendly competition, but a “cheat.”
Musk’s lawyer even tweeted that this whole issue is an “unlawful appropriation” of intellectual property.
The Threads team was also accused of hiring former Twitter employees with the intention of creating a copy of Twitter. This claim was dismissed by the Meta Communications Director Andy Stone in a Threads post, claiming it be “simply not a thing.” Nevertheless, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg soon may be caught between a rock and a hard place over the whole situation.
Post by @andymstoneView on Threads
Will Threads be the new Social Media giant?
Only one question remains now: will Threads soon replace Twitter? With what we currently know, it’s easy to say yes to this concept. If you think about a child getting a new toy because it got tired of its old one, does it mean that the old toy will no longer be used and be thrown out without remorse? We cannot say that entirely. However, if charts continue to move in the direction they are facing, the shiny new toy may remain on top after all.
