Early & Alone #90: Losing the Thread

On social media and building an audience

Photo by Bozhin Karaivanov on Unsplash

I’m having a very Monday Monday over here. It’s my first full week of work in weeks, it’s pouring rain, and I had a dentist appointment this morning, so my gums are sore. My upstairs neighbors are repainting so they’re banging around even more than usual, and there’s something wrong with the hot water heater so there’s banging from the basement, too. And poor Gizmo hates the banging AND the rain, so he’s barking a lot.

So why am I here? I miss it here! But also the launch of Threads, Instagram’s Twitter competitor, has me thinking a lot about social media and engagement and how to be online these days.

Like 70 million others, I downloaded Threads Friday afternoon, eager for a new Twitter. I’d found myself feeling a little lost the last couple of months, having no place to post one-off pithy thoughts or recommend essays or follow some new drama I’d forget within hours. I couldn’t post those kinds of things on Instagram, and Notes, the Substack answer to Twitter, wasn’t really working for me either (it felt like shouting into a void). The thought of trying out a new platform like Mastodon or Blue Sky or Post or [insert other thing here] was totally exhausting.

And then came Threads, seemingly out of nowhere. Threads was surely the answer to my problems! But after I downloaded it, I found I didn’t have anything to say. Not there, anyway. And then I started reading more about it from smart writers who’d articulated the issue far better than I could: all of these platforms are for different things. Who you follow on Twitter is not who you follow on Instagram or TikTok. Like different people in your life, these platforms serve different purposes for us. So how can those visual accounts, influencers, and celebrities we follow on Instagram generate the same vibe as the politicos, comedians, and news accounts we follow on Twitter? Not everyone has a way with words. And that’s okay!

But also…maybe I just don’t really care anymore? Part of the reason I took a step away from Substack is because I felt inundated with all of Substack’s features. They’re all designed to help drive more people to your Substack, which I wanted, or want—but like anything else, it just becomes a numbers game. I found myself getting frustrated that my subscriber count is still relatively low. All of the advice said to be consistent and follow and comment on other Substacks and share your links, etc. etc. I did all of the things and it felt exhausting and gross. It made me question what I am even doing here. Or anywhere on the internet. Not only have I stopped posting on Twitter, I’ve been posting less on Instagram. Am I posting content because I’m trying to have a conversation with other people, or am I posting to have people look at me? I think, most of the time, it’s the former, but there’s some aspect of the latter, too, and I’m just not sure what the point is.

Now don’t get me wrong, I will absolutely post on Threads. In fact, I reposted (rethreaded?) and replied to a couple of posts as I was writing this. It’s not that deep, as they say. But it all just makes me think about social media and platforms and interaction—what’s it all for? Lemme know your thoughts—are you on Threads? Are you excited about it? What do you think it’s for?

Bright Spots

• I loved both Spider-Man: Across the Spiderverse and Asteroid City, the two most recent movies I saw in the theater. And I got tickets for Barbie opening night today. CANNOT WAIT.

• The Amazon documentary on the Duggar family and the Institute of Basic Life Principles was super fascinating (and so, so dark). It’s called Shiny Happy People. I also loved the last (😩) season of The Other Two on Max. I just started season 2 of The Bear and I already love it.

Honestly, there have been a lot of good things lately but I haven’t done a good job keeping track so this is all for now. Hopefully I will be back soon.