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The Allure of Blue Skies
Social Media gives people the illusion of control in their lives
Matt Cundill
November 21, 2024
What's Below
Over the last few weeks, there has been a migration of people piling on to the social media platform called Blue Sky. The process goes something like this: Someone makes a post on X declaring their disdain for X, they abandon or delete their account and move over to Blue Sky and connect with most the same people they did before. Blue Sky has the looks and feels of the place once known as Twitter. I don’t believe it is something that will knock off X - but it is a place where you can cultivate some of the connections and joy you once experienced when you first joined Twitter back in 2009-2014.
As a long time fan of Twitter and user of X - I have grown tired of having posts fed to me that make no sense. Even using features that remove posts with words associated with subject matter I dislike, did not change the negative texture of the experience. Twice within the days after the U.S. election, I found myself arguing with bots or at best, people with no followers or profile pictures. What I felt and was experiencing reminded me of what happens when a radio station begins to suck. The user experience feels, cluttered, and negative. There are people you have no interest in associating with, you are bombed with ads or messaging you don’t want or need, and you want to change the channel.
And now people are changing the channel to Blue Sky. As I type this - they are getting between 5-8 new users every second. Watch it grow in real time.
It’s not hard to figure out this growth graph. People didn’t like the outcome of the election, or Elon Musk’s comfy relationship with President-elect Trump, or just grew tired of it. There are lots of reasons to leave. I will not be taking my ball and leaving X - I am still streaming a lot video content and there are still a few good reasons to linger about. And will do so until there are none. But if you leave and delete your account - I totally get it.
For now - if you are considering a jump to Blue Sky - here are some things to help.
Use this Google Chrome tool to help locate your Twitter/X friends who have already found their way over. The tool is not perfect but it will allow you get off to a great start.
James Cridland turned me on to this and I didn’t even know it was a thing. You can use your website domain as your handle. We are on BlueSky as @mattcundill.com and @soundoff.network - James has a blog post and explanation of why this is a good idea.
You will still encounter the same bot and spammer nonsense that plagued Twitter/X - including catfishing attempts from girls in your neighbourhood.
Should you be on Blue Sky? Unsure. Here is an article to help you decide but for now a good idea would be to go and get your handle and secure it for the future before you are left with JennyJones54353 and you are left looking like a bot.
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