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Without sarcasm, I’ve never been able to understand how or why real people use Twitter or similar platforms. Do actual human users genuinely scroll through and

Without sarcasm, I’ve never been able to understand how or why real people use Twitter or similar platforms. Do actual human users genuinely scroll through and read all that noise? What motivates someone to do that? Is it comparable to the TikTok trance, where users get hooked by a dopamine rush?

adlpz 2y ago
Just talking about my own usage, I follow lots of people in the tech space, indie hackers, AI researchers, etc. By checking Twitter from time to time I learn about new tools, libraries and models, check out cool stuff made by others, etc. It's literally the same reason behind reading HN. A HN with a higher ground noise but much more real-time, interactive and orders of magnitude higher bandwidth. You just need to curate things very hard so make sure you keep enough signal above the nose to be worth it.
Deegy 2y ago
If you're prudent about who you follow it can be an enjoyable experience. Just make sure you only follow people you really want to hear from, and make sure your feed is set to 'following'.
dandellion 2y ago
Same here, tried following a few people in the field, half of the content I saw was still off-topic, memes or personal stuff. Signal to noise on Bluesky is about as bad as on Twitter, I think it's just that the type of platform and the format are not conductive to good communication. It's the equivalent of panning for hours and hours to find a tiny bit of gold, it's just not worth the time you waste on it.
- hollerith 2y ago
  Also, even if I personally avoid Bluesky and Twitter, they still affect me via their corrosive effect on my society.
bloopernova 2y ago
I view it as a community notice board. Twitter was great for getting intermittent announcements. Not so great at facilitating a respectful dialogue.
puff_pastry 2y ago
It's mostly become a marketing tool for individuals
archagon 2y ago
It vaguely resembles socializing and makes you feel less lonely.

adlpz 2y ago

Just talking about my own usage, I follow lots of people in the tech space, indie hackers, AI researchers, etc. By checking Twitter from time to time I learn about new tools, libraries and models, check out cool stuff made by others, etc. It's literally the same reason behind reading HN. A HN with a higher ground noise but much more real-time, interactive and orders of magnitude higher bandwidth. You just need to curate things very hard so make sure you keep enough signal above the nose to be worth it.

Deegy 2y ago

If you're prudent about who you follow it can be an enjoyable experience. Just make sure you only follow people you really want to hear from, and make sure your feed is set to 'following'.

dandellion 2y ago

Same here, tried following a few people in the field, half of the content I saw was still off-topic, memes or personal stuff. Signal to noise on Bluesky is about as bad as on Twitter, I think it's just that the type of platform and the format are not conductive to good communication. It's the equivalent of panning for hours and hours to find a tiny bit of gold, it's just not worth the time you waste on it.

hollerith 2y ago
Also, even if I personally avoid Bluesky and Twitter, they still affect me via their corrosive effect on my society.

bloopernova 2y ago

I view it as a community notice board. Twitter was great for getting intermittent announcements. Not so great at facilitating a respectful dialogue.

puff_pastry 2y ago

It's mostly become a marketing tool for individuals

archagon 2y ago

It vaguely resembles socializing and makes you feel less lonely.