New Year, New Platforms

I do a vibe check on several Twitter alternatives.

January 06, 2023

Welcome Back

Hello, happy New Year, and welcome back to Kinda Brief! While we were away, I braved the cold winter weather in Atlanta and returned to rainy atmospheric rivers in San Francisco. I spent New Year’s Day dancing at a Burning Man camp block party, then started my Dry January. I’ve also been pretty good about detoxing from Twitter. Both using the platform itself and following the day-to-day theatrics of Musk’s “leadership” at the company. It’s been a nice break, and I hope you have stayed safe, warm, and dry since the last newsletter. Now back to the usual internet nonsense. 

Platform Updates

Instagram 

TikTok

Twitter

YouTube

Tumblr 

Mastodon 

Microsoft 

Snap 

Culture Movers 

Film & TV

Scams

Look Back; Look Ahead 

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Twitter Alternative Check In 

While I’ve been good at staying off Twitter itself the past few weeks, I’m still a Poster™️ at heart and need an outlet for my little jokes and real-time analysis of the day’s news. So when I uninstalled the Twitter App from my phone, I looked to a few other platforms to act as my digital methadone. I want to quickly do a very informal vibe check on what I think is going on with each of the spaces I’ve explored. 

Instagram/Meta - So… rumor has it they are building a Twitter clone. Or at least tech journalists are suggesting they should do it. I’ve seen a few folks using Instagram stories differently as they walk back their Twitter usage, but it’s a minor change at best. Until they roll out a new app/feed/feature set, Instagram is still the Snapchat Stories clone trying to make being a TikTok clone happen to fund building a VR Second Life clone. 

Tumblr - It’s still Tumblr. There might be a new influx of users or time spent there, but the core sense of community, style of humor, and vibe of conversations don’t feel like they’ve changed to accommodate any ex-Tweeters, which is good. As weird as Tumblr users can be, there’s something delightful about the culture there. I don’t want to see that change to be more Twitter-like. 

Hive - When Comics Twitter and Gay Twitter got excited about Hive before Thanksgiving, I thought I’d found my Twitter replacement. Sadly things are not looking so good there. The app went down in early December for several days to fix some critical security issues. Honestly, props for putting security first like that, but it really killed the momentum on the app, and after it came back, things have felt like a ghost town. 

Post. - It sure does have news, alright, I tell you what. Post., as their URL, Post.News, implies is really trying to go after the journalists and news readers of Twitter. So far, it’s working okay for that. I can open it and see the latest embarrassment for Kevin McCarthy right at the top of my feed. But it’s not fun. Post. might grow into a more useful utility as it adds features and a broader user base, but right now, it’s the thing I check after Apple News and Feedly if I’m really bored. 

Mastodon - *long sigh* I want to like Mastodon. It probably does the best job replicating some of my favorite things about Twitter. There’s a feed of short, funny, smart, text-forward posts from cool people. The service also feels like it’s actively trying to make itself hard to use. Picking an instance, finding and following people, searching for relevant conversations. All of this stuff is way harder than it needs to be on Mastodon and not in a “we haven’t simplified it yet because new things are hard” kind of way, in an “I really like Linux, and you’re an idiot for not using it too” kind of way. I do love that Tweets are called Toots there. Makes me feel like this whenever I post, which is nice. 

A screenshot of Sarah Jessica Parker dancing from Sex and the City with the subtitle “toot toot, beep beep.” 

Tumblr and Mastodon have probably absorbed most of the time that used to go to Twitter in my screen time report, but I don’t think that’s a settled long-term behavior yet. Either for myself or other folks running from Elon’s three-ring circus of abusive trolling, security issues, and buggy product changes. 

Is there another app I’m missing here? Are you a fellow recovering Twitter user getting your social fix on another app? Let me know what other platforms I should keep an eye on and include next time we check in on these Twitter alternative vibes. 

Lastly, A Word of Advice

Use two-factor authentication everywhere you can, don’t reuse passwords, and change passwords for important sites on a regular basis. Between the Twitter leak (see Twitter section above), the LastPass breach, and the general state of internet security, it’s just a good idea to stay on top of these basic internet hygiene practices.