Stitching up Twitter on War of the Apps: Is Threads really a threat?

I never liked Twitter. The name mostly. I felt it was extremely frivolous if it was indeed a platform to discuss serious news and important political events. It could be called anything else but 'Twitter' because most of us don't really identify ourselves with birds or think we are the 'Twitterati' much as we may love to talk and spout an opinion here and there. 

Also along with serious discussions, Twitter usually always has a lot of space for pictures of people's pets, especially cats and dogs which seems to have become rampant now on this app particularly. And while I’m saying this, let me clear the air that I mean no offence to animal lovers because I realise I’m in a minority that I don’t really warm up to the furry species.
 
Here’s a tiny flashback to my pre-Twitter days: It was 2010 when I first joined the gang of blue birdie lovers only because peer pressure built up and the FOMO movement became really huge. I was constantly asked why, oh why did I not have a Twitter account, all the more necessary for journalists, and so I gave in. But I was never active on the site. I liked to read people's rabid views, enjoy the ensuing fights that occurred over them and generally stay put in my role of a spectator.

And then, as the years passed, things changed a bit. 

In the last two years, I actually started enjoying Twitter. Oh no, don’t get me wrong. It wasn’t because I developed a fetish for political debates or sparring or putting my views across forcefully. No. I started liking it because of the information overload that I craved. If I wanted to get information on anything, Twitter became the place to go to. Suddenly those jarring fights between people assumed meaning because I had developed a hunger for learning things (never say too old, never) and Twitter was good with that. I educated myself on a lot of things on Twitter, only because I was too lazy and did not have time to pore through manuals of information on health, science, politics, etc.,

And then sometime later. Elon Musk took over. Twitter's been fun since then.

There’s a lot happening there and the news is current, interesting, and debatable and the exchanges are getting intellectual with almost every expert of any kind waxing eloquent on Twitter, supported by pictures and videos and the like. Of course, the icing on the cake these days is the never-politically-correct Musk who encourages people to be themselves. Always a believer in the unvarnished world. He got me there.

The bad boys are always more fun. I started loving being on Twitter.

Of course, there’s one more thing. Most social media apps may get you a lot of influence in the corridors of power, dependent on how many followers you have, but on Twitter, you could be a common man/woman with just a handful of friends as your followers, and you can actually tag power makers and get your voice heard. I started to feel that if you wanted to change things around, Twitter helps. It did for me.

I don’t know if that reason will still be there in the days to come and if Twitter will still be regarded as a powerful tool of social media, but so far so good.

And then into that space, this week, suddenly entered the potential rival #twitterkiller, Threads by Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg of the fat family of Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and so many others.

I don’t think anybody yet doesn’t know what Threads is all about. Is it going to kill Twitter, is it going to get Zuckerberg laughing all the way to the bank as Musk sheds tears? We don’t know. Not yet.
 
I’ll tell you about my experience.

I spent a solitary week on Threads, gathering a few followers, deleting a few posts and seriously, not much action. After getting used to a diet of hard news, and happenings from all around the world and checking out comments and activities related to that, this place seems, uh, dull. The random feeds bored me. 

We already have Instagram for photos, Facebook for happenings in our personal lives, Linkedin for our work life, Youtube, Snapchat for videos, Tik Tok (in some countries), Twitter for news and so on and so forth. What do you do on Threads? 

Frankly speaking, it was like going back in a time machine to when really simple social media existed. Does anybody remember Orkut? 

On the face of it, the layout is eerily similar to Twitter. Innovation be damned, Mr Zuckerberg. 

ALSO READ| Threads overtakes ChatGPT to hit 100 million users mark in mere five days

But then, once you go in, you realise there are many features that are still not available on Threads yet and for those who are used to all that, it may be a bit cumbersome to be denied all the goodies we have been playing with, so far.

Is everybody on Twitter going to shift bag and baggage here as doomsday media predictions go? 

I think we should cool our heels and wait. Things are going by too fast and maybe none of these predictions will hold water in a few months. But, the figures are good and the storyboard could shift.

Last heard, Threads had 100 million signups! Whether that is happening because of the curiosity factor as is apt to happen whenever something new launches or because people are starved of new social platforms or because they are genuinely fed up with Twitter, we don’t know. 

Okay, now what does Threads have or not have, as compared to Twitter? 

Instagram CEO Adam Mosseri has said that Threads is not for news and politics. Really? What would people do then if there are no burning discussions on who’s doing what? Twitter has all of it and much more. 

Threads has only a single feed with trending posts and content from followers. Twitter has separate feeds such as "For You" and "Following" that can enhance user experience. I felt that simplified my life because of the neat compartmentalization.

Threads lacks DMs (I know, can’t imagine not connecting with people you barely know, right?) and hashtags that make content discoverable (I used that on Threads as well; old habits die hard)

Threads has no edit facilities. Twitter has it for its premium users. I haven’t got there nor the blue tick, yet. But will, I’m optimistic or at least trying to be.

While Twitter gives the flexibility to access its platform through any web browser, Threads, on the other hand, is designed as a mobile application. The website, Threads.net, redirects users to download the Android or iOS version of the Threads app.

Threads does not allow customisation of the alt (alternative) text or image descriptions, unlike Twitter, therefore making it less accessible to people with disabilities as it is used by screen readers that come in handy for the visually impaired.

Unlike Twitter, Threads has no trending topics, no ads and you cannot embed Threads posts, for sharing on external platforms such as blogs.

No ads is of course a happy experience and Meta CEO Zuckerberg says Threads may not introduce ads unless it achieves a substantial user base.

The one good thing!

In the end though, I’m still a Twitter fan. 

Reasons? All of the above features that Threads still doesn’t have, or maybe doesn’t plan to implement.  

And what's really scary is that, apparently, once you download Threads and enter it, you can’t really leave. If you try to leave, along with it, your much-loved Instagram account that you have spent hours on editing and filtering photos to upload, will also be deleted.

If that’s not holding one at gunpoint, what is? 

I’m happier staying with Twitter.
 

(Disclaimer: The views of the writer do not represent the views of WION or ZMCL. Nor does WION or ZMCL endorse the views of the writer)

WATCH WION LIVE HERE