On Thursday, Meta-owned social network Instagram announced the preemptive release of their new ‘threads’ feature; a supposed rival to Twitter’s synonymous tweet threads in wake of the network’s apparent demise following Elon Musk’s $44 billion takeover.
Once primarily focused on image sharing, the now decade old platform seeks to once again expand into new territory – following on from recent years where Reels tried to rival TikTok and Stories posts aimed to compete with Snapchat.
Not twenty seconds after my log-in, I am met with the expected ‘tf is this’ and ‘where am i? What is this?’ comments from an optimistic selection of candidates hopeful to have the first viral post. The unwritten rules feel fearfully undecided and I’m overwhelmed – am I following these people? Where is Charli XCX? I suddenly feel two generations too old for this disorientating, unorganised world-wide group chat.
The first few hours read like watching a crowd claw their way into a Black Friday sale as the floodgates open. I see friends lose their sanity as they post the most confusing AI-like sentences I have ever read, the way we all did once in hopes of the viral tweet that never came. “So this is why we never added each other on Twitter”, I think to myself; it’s rare that friends have something worth writing that won’t need copyediting to the bone to appease a potential viral backlash.
Threads feel similarly unlikeable to Instagram’s Reels feature, glaringly obvious in its attempt to recapture a distracted user base from TikTok. Where recent success story BeReal capitalised on closed social circles, familiarity and genuineness, Threads goes in the complete opposite direction to a result of unfamiliar, uncanny chaos.
It’s uncomfortable to watch the slow decline of a more diverse set of social networks; gone are the days of slightly questionable Tumblr content. Potentially being fed algorithm-decided content from one single overarching company feels more dystopian than when we got to pick our poison.
We are, however, each one in a crowd of millions of first day sign-up users; our platforms in theory no bigger than yesterday. It’s hopeful in ways to see such excitement for a back to basics form of social networking in an age of eye straining image and video-rich content. I anticipate spectating the unique direction we can expect after such a rare online event as this.
And yes, you can, regretfully, already find us on Threads.
Original Illustrations by Tommy Manning