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We're all lurkers now. Our outward-facing posts are getting less engagement & we’re less inclined to share them. We’re growing silent, lurking, sitting in thes

We're all lurkers now. Our outward-facing posts are getting less engagement & we’re less inclined to share them. We’re growing silent, lurking, sitting in these digital rooms out of habit & not because we really want to be there

PaulHoule 3y ago
One trend I have noticed on X and similar platforms (Mastodon) is that a lot of people really don't seem to like comments on their threads. It didn't seem like this when I was on Twitter before 2017 but today it seems widespread. Some of it is that people have gotten in the habit of replying to themselves in long threads which doesn't really work right with the user interface on any of these sites under any conditions, but certainly not when somebody replies to what the OP thinks is the wrong toot. And then some people just get pissed that somebody made a reply that didn't mirror them 100% and they post some image with angry text and the caption "... would you believe somebody posted this lame-ass reply within 15 minutes of my post?" (Don't most replies come pretty quickly?) All these sites could use a dramatically better UI for showing the reply tree of a post but I think people have gotten downright nasty.
- loa_in_ 3y ago
  I think you're seeing the result of people who would otherwise be engaged in such interaction to move away to discussions over video or discussions in smaller community chatrooms/niche forums. Common complaint is excessive ads and brand presence and need for privacy in communication because of the extent of data mining. Why would you discuss something in a public Twitter thread when you can link to it and discuss it elsewhere? People are drawn to human connection and the public spaces don't provide it anymore.
  - jhobag 3y ago
    Instagram's CEO actually talks about this movement from public engagement to private groups, stories/dms in a podcast, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OHIsVfdqg74 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OHIsVfdqg74 Very noticeable trend as after the explosion of IG around 2017, a lot of convos went to from fb messenger to ig group/telegram/discord/signal and obviously whatsapp Personally seeing posting to the main feed as being too extra, usually someone trying to sell something, instagram being too full of ads/irrelevant info or bait at the worst... which I guess you could say is the same for most of the big public websites

PaulHoule 3y ago

One trend I have noticed on X and similar platforms (Mastodon) is that a lot of people really don't seem to like comments on their threads. It didn't seem like this when I was on Twitter before 2017 but today it seems widespread. Some of it is that people have gotten in the habit of replying to themselves in long threads which doesn't really work right with the user interface on any of these sites under any conditions, but certainly not when somebody replies to what the OP thinks is the wrong toot. And then some people just get pissed that somebody made a reply that didn't mirror them 100% and they post some image with angry text and the caption "... would you believe somebody posted this lame-ass reply within 15 minutes of my post?" (Don't most replies come pretty quickly?) All these sites could use a dramatically better UI for showing the reply tree of a post but I think people have gotten downright nasty.

loa_in_ 3y ago
I think you're seeing the result of people who would otherwise be engaged in such interaction to move away to discussions over video or discussions in smaller community chatrooms/niche forums. Common complaint is excessive ads and brand presence and need for privacy in communication because of the extent of data mining. Why would you discuss something in a public Twitter thread when you can link to it and discuss it elsewhere? People are drawn to human connection and the public spaces don't provide it anymore.
- jhobag 3y ago
  Instagram's CEO actually talks about this movement from public engagement to private groups, stories/dms in a podcast, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OHIsVfdqg74 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OHIsVfdqg74 Very noticeable trend as after the explosion of IG around 2017, a lot of convos went to from fb messenger to ig group/telegram/discord/signal and obviously whatsapp Personally seeing posting to the main feed as being too extra, usually someone trying to sell something, instagram being too full of ads/irrelevant info or bait at the worst... which I guess you could say is the same for most of the big public websites