Social Media Users Can Walk And Chew Gum. Why Abandon One For The Other?
Photo by Kumiko SHIMIZU
In the wake of the latest presidential election, it’s morning in America!
Well, maybe not, but a lot of people seem to be talking about Bluesky, which implies sun, which implies morning. OK, yeah, a stretch — the newly popular social media platform sounds more like an ELO fan site than a Reagan-era campaign slogan.
But the “newly popular” part — Bluesky launched in early 2023 as an invite-only beta, then in early 2024 to the general public — does seemingly have a lot to do with the presidential election.
My news feeds are all a-bulge this week with headlines and analyses about a “migration” from Elon Musk’s X (formerly Twitter) to Bluesky.
The evidence for such a migration: Bluesky is growing quickly, X is shrinking slowly, and many Bluesky users have been very vocal about abandoning X for Bluesky because, well, MAGA.
Nothing wrong with that, I guess. Musk has certainly gone out of his way to cater to the MAGA set, while Bluesky finds itself painted, by supporters and detractors alike, as a “safe space” for moderates, progressives, Democrats, liberals, et al.
I’m personally sympathetic to those who prefer social media “silos” curated to their own tastes. Most of us live that way in meatspace — like me, you’ve probably never invited David Duke over for dinner or signed up for a Nazi bar pub crawl — and extending that to a “there ain’t enough room on this platform for both of us” philosophy doesn’t strike me as strange or inherently wrong.
On the other hand, nearly every social media platform allows considerable self-siloing, so there really IS enough room on those platforms for various people and groups who don’t care to talk to each other.
Follow the users you like, ignore or even block the users you don’t like. “Problem” solved.
One recent teapot tempest with X came about when Musk decreed that, henceforth, blocked users may view the posts of (although not engage with) users who have blocked them. Not a biggie, in my opinion, except to those actively seeking something to get upset about. Especially since it’s always been easy to get around the “no viewing” part by using an alternate account.
If you just can’t stand the “MAGAts” on X, or the “leftards” on Bluesky, you can leave one platform or the other … or you can learn to walk and chew gum at the same time by following, ignoring, and blocking to create the experiences you want in more than one forum.
Personally, I maintain accounts on many social media platforms (including X and Bluesky). I use some more actively than others, depending on how well their functions/environments serve my purposes.
But that’s just me. There’s really no wrong answer.
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