Right now, Threads is being marketed as a kinder and gentler text-based post destination. — Reuters
I got some bad news from my daughter. I thought she was joking because what she told me almost made me drop to my knees. Ugh. I have to set up another social media account.
Curse you Mark Zuckerberg and your Twitter-inspired Threads.
I know I don’t actually have to join Threads but my daughter is my social media manager. It’s a job that pays her nothing and the only upside for her is that she gets to tell me what to do. I’ve learned not to cross her.
Well, I did pitch a small fit over this Threads thing. As in, I whined – a lot – and then stopped when I was told the main reason I had to join was to secure my Snarky in the Suburbs “brand name.”
My daughter wasn’t wrong about that. I’m still peeved there’s a “Snarky in the Suburbs” on Pinterest. The good news is that whoever has that page is really funny. So points to that person, or perhaps bot, for being on message.
But my big question is this: Why does the human race require another social media outlet? Some marketing gurus called Threads a “better public square.” Umm, OK, but don’t we have enough of those squares?
I mean, how much typing in all caps and vitriol outlets do we need? Before I committed to handing over even more personal data to Zuckerberg, I felt the need to go on Twitter and experience its current state of being.
It had been a while since I ventured on Twitter. Sure, I go and poke around on it every now and then, but since the double whammy of the pandemic and the 2020 election I’ve been Twitter averse.
So averse that when I started scrolling in the “For You” section I was squinting my eyes and grimacing in preparation for what awaited me. I should have closed my eyes because what I saw was as alarming as it was pathetic.
My feed was still rife with election deniers and pandemic conspiracy theories. Good grief, you would think like a cranky baby these folks would have cried themselves out or moved onto another rant.
What also was maddening was that so many reputable media outlets aren’t on Twitter. They’ve just left. For me, Twitter’s main selling point was being able to follow breaking news being reported on by legit journalists. Now, not so much or not nearly as much.
That said, I don’t know if Threads is the answer to Twitter being, to use parenting parlance, on a long time-out that has progressed to being grounded.
Right now, Threads is being marketed as a kinder and gentler text-based post destination. Yeah maybe, for right now but I’m thinking the upcoming presidential election is going to expunge that whole unicorn and rainbows ethos before you can say Iowa Republican Caucus and South Carolina Democratic Primary.
I refuse to let myself even think about all the political raging we have coming our way and now, lucky us, we’ve got another social media app to amplify that fury. The solution seems simple: Just opt out of social media. But that negates the very real fact that the hate speech spewed on social media doesn’t just stay there. It attaches itself to the soul of the country like a thirsty tick.
Here’s hoping, as in desperately hoping, that when Threads’ “sweet disposition” unravels it doesn’t further alter public discourse for the worse. – The Kansas City Star/Tribune News Service
