Evacuation Of Social Media

Marisa Kabas, who like me suffers a purgatory from Twitter after a name change on March 31, published an article about the logistics and emotions of finding a suitable online home, now that Twitter is dying. Substack notes, Post, Mastodon, and now Bluesky all had hype, and all siphoned off a few users, but none have hit critical mass. As Kabas points out, most of those who have jumped still post screenshots on Twitter.

Wandering the Digital Diaspora

While some were bold enough to actually jump, many of us straddled two ships, hoping Twitter would somehow figure it’s shit out or one of these new enterprises would prove buoyant enough to sustain into the future. But as we realized Twitter wasn’t going to simply explode one day, but rather sink inch by inch, we had a choice in front of us: do we give another network a shot, or keep sinking and hope something better comes along?

Marisa Kabas, May 1, 2023, thehandbasket.substack.com

Kabas’ article is worth the read, and I have other thoughts. Twitter, like Asgard in the best Thor movie, isn’t a place it’s a people. I’ve read a dozen articles now explaining network effect and how it made Twitter.

Substack notes, Post, Mastodon, Tumblr, and many others have the technical architecture needed to replace Twitter. The problem is Twitter users didn’t all…