Threads are out, and we are not talking about the stitch on you pants

BY SIMONE J. SMITH

“There’s an opportunity for a separate space where creators and public figures can share timely updates about their interests.” Team Meta

When a new technology emerges, it often brings unfamiliar concepts, features, and implications. People may fear what they do not understand, which can lead to apprehension and resistance. There are so many new technologies that can alter the way we interact with each other and the world around us. For instance, social media and smartphones have changed communication patterns and have contributed to feelings of isolation or addiction. It is important to note that many new technologies involve the collection and processing of personal data, and people may worry about the misuse of their information, surveillance, or breaches of privacy.

Well community, there is yet another social media platform that is taking the world by storm. Meta’s Threads app has been building up hype in the last few months, and the Twitter alternative is now available internationally. What I did not know is that Twitter has a growing number of disgruntled users.

Since Elon Musk took over Twitter, we have seen a lot of similar apps come and go, two examples are Bluesky and Mastodon. Bluesky is a text-oriented social media platform on which users can post messages as long as 300 characters. Like Twitter, the messages posted on Bluesky appear on a newsfeed displayed to users. The app is available on iOS and Android. Mastodon was founded in 2016 by German software developer Eugen Rochko. Unlike Twitter, Facebook, Reddit or any other popular social media site, Mastodon is a nonprofit, meaning that, ideally, its goal is to benefit the public, rather than shareholders.

However, we suspect that Threads will likely trump them all and gain a pretty solid user base straight from the get-go. The new platform has been described by Meta as “A stand-alone decentralized social network for sharing text updates.” It is a place where users can share text-based updates and follow people and organizations that are important to them.

Threads has proved so successful, that over five million users signed up for it in the first few hours it was live, and now they reportedly have over 10 million users signed up. While the burst of sign-ups doesn’t necessarily mean people will use Threads long term, the milestone is notable. If you look at the success of OpenAI’s chatbot ChatGPT, which kicked off an AI rush late last year, they surpassed 100 million monthly active users after two months. At the end of 2022, Twitter had 259 million daily active users. Instagram has 1.39 billion daily active users.

Threads launched in more than 100 countries, but its release has been delayed in the European Union, reportedly due to data-sharing concerns between Instagram and Threads. Meta is also reportedly blocking attempts by people in the EU to access Threads using a VPN, telling TechCrunch in a statement that, “We’ve taken additional steps to prevent people based there from accessing it at this time.”

So how do you get onto Threads? It’s pretty simple. If you’ve already got an Insta account, your username will be reserved for you over on Threads, so once the app goes live, you’ll be able to hop right on without any hassle and post away.  You can log in with your Instagram account and go through your existing follower list to choose exactly who you want to follow on Threads, hopefully avoiding an immediate cluttering of your news feed. You’ll also see the familiar like, comment, repost (in this case perhaps re-thread?), and share buttons at the bottom of each post.

The Threads user interface is pretty basic for now. Everything you need you can find at the bottom in the navigation bar: home, search, new thread, activity and profile.

I want to note that while some fears about technology may be justified, others may be based on misinformation or misconceptions. The Toronto Caribbean Newspaper wants to address these concerns through education, and transparency that we hope will help alleviate fear and foster a more informed adoption of new technologies.