August Poll Results: Thoughts on Twitter (“X”) and Threads?

Usually, social media platforms are busy facilitating controversy — not actually generating it. But recently, two giants have been dominating the headlines, as they seek to reshape and dominate the social media landscape: X and Threads.

To get a sense of how these shifts and swirls are being received, last month we asked you to share your thoughts on Twitter (“X”) and Threads. As we had hoped, there were many interesting responses.

X Doesn’t Mark the Spot

In old pirate stories and movies, the fabled chest of buried treasure was always marked on a map with a big “X” (apparently pirates used the same branding guide).

Well, as far as many of you are concerned, X — formerly known as Twitter — is not a treasure trove. Rather, it is a pit of despair. Here are some of your thoughts:

• Twitter is gone for good.
• I left my account there. Not using it anymore.
• The rename of Twitter to X is just another odd move in a series of odd moves by Musk. I've heard pundits talking about how it's going to try to off-load the Twitter brand for a few billion to help offset some of his debts and losses, which sounds like a move he would try to make. The whole thing just has me sitting back with my bag of microwave popcorn enjoying the show.
• What do I think about the worst-formatted communication platform that turned surprisingly useful and at least made a minor effort to filter extremism and misinformation which angered extremists and lead to its eventual purchase by the oh-my-gosh-he's-really-an-extremist-megalomaniac under the guise of free speech only to do what megalomaniacs do and truly solidify itself as the best misinformation platform on the planet focused on the things Mr. Megalomaniac loves and block the things he hates which isn't at all free speech? Sigh. Another day in America.
• I refuse to call it by Elon's new name. I am looking forward to its eventual bankruptcy sale.
• Trying to come up with a platform that is just like someone else’s just so you can control the content is a bad strategy.
• Although I only use Twitter (now X) only to follow some people who are interesting to me, I feel the whole platform is sinking rapidly. When those people I follow are going to other social media, I will likely follow them and leave X.
• It sucks. Space X, X and maybe Earth X instead of Tesla...
• Changing a brand name like that with so much momentum isn't likely to have much impact short term. It's a longer-term strategy, assuming there is a strategy behind it.
• If it ain’t broke. Don't try to fix it.
• X on the other hand — It’s gone downhill from when Jack was in charge.
• X is on its way down the toilet.
• I don't really want to encourage Twitter/X I don't agree with some of there positions
• Twitter/X has been a mess but I continue to use it minimally to get data I can't get other places (mostly real-time sports stuff).
• Twitter/X is becoming a screaming contest (if it wasn't already). I'm there to follow tech & sport news, but lately I get bombarded by opinions that I don't share (part of the plan to broaden my opinion according to the buyer), so spending less and less time there.

Threading the Needle?

Clearly, many of you are not big fans of X (or Mr. Musk’s decision-making). However, this doesn’t mean that you are thrilled with Threads, either.

The biggest concern, understandably, is with privacy — or rather, the lack of privacy. Here were some of your comments:

• Threads has untenable privacy policy so that's not even a possibility.
• I can't even use Threads because it's such a privacy nightmare that they ended up not doing an EU rollout. From what I've heard it's unfinished anyways.
• Threads is not available in Europe and with the track record of Meta on privacy, not sure if I will jump on.

Also, some of you have questioned how Threads is being used — or make that mis-used:

• Threads would be interesting if it weren't just people on Instagram re-packaging their photos and adding the caption to it, or people posting on Threads and then just posting a picture of that post to Instagram. Keep the cross posting to a minimum and let me follow you where I think your content plays best.
• What's blocking transition to Threads or is a grabber... there's nothing to bring anyone to another platform.

Still, a few community members are open to giving Threads a try… eventually:

• I did not use Meta’s new Threads. We will see the next.
• Will look forward to getting my hands on Threads (It’s not out here yet).

Who Will Prevail?

Time will tell whether X (or whatever it might be called in the future) prevails in the battle of the social media titans, or if Threads emerges victorious. However, we can say this much: this is only the beginning, and the next few months and years are going to be very interesting — and certainly controversial.

The Winners Are

And now, let’s reveal the two lucky poll participants who were randomly-selected to each win a $25 Amazon gift card. Congratulations to Derek Johnson and Cicero Lima! Please email me at lcadieux@devolutions.net to claim your prize.

Stay Tuned

Thank you to everyone who participated in the August poll. We’ll be launching the September poll question soon — stay tuned!