Over the summer, there were new social media platforms released which millions of users signed up for. Notably, there was Threads, made by the creators of Instagram, and X, the rebranding of Twitter.
After Elon Musk acquired Twitter, he immediately made changes; Elon fired employees at Twitter and ultimately decided to change the name and branding of Twitter to X.
As a long-time user of Twitter, I was sad to see the app change. I can’t be the only one who found the Twitter app comforting, as it was the first app where I was able to truly express myself. I loved the freedom that Twitter provided to share my voice.
One of the main changes that Elon made to Twitter, was changing its logo its logo from a bluebird, into an “X.” I disagree with the change, as it felt unnecessary to make a drastic change in the branding.
Twitter’s blue bird logo was unique as the logo became synonymous and easily recognizable to their brand. A simple “X” is plain, and quite honest, uncreative.
Teresa Galvan is a current student at CSUB in her junior year. She is currently majoring in Liberal Studies. “I agree that Elon Musk has the right to change Twitter after acquiring it, however, the change was not well-thought-out. What do we call tweeting now, X-ing? I don’t like it…’ said Teresa Galvan.”
It was a hasty decision that is now receiving backlash worldwide from people who also disagree with the change.
According to Tech Crunch, X saw less weekly active users and total activity online post-rebrand. To be specific, 4% of users dropped the app,following the rebrand of Twitter according to data from August 6-20th.
On, July 5, Meta launched Threads, a text-based social media platform. Before its’ release, users immediately compared the new platform with Twitter. According to data from Quiver Quantitative, a software platform, Threads quickly became popular, becoming the fastest-growing social media platform of all time reaching 100 million users in five days. However, there is a catch.
One way to sign up for a Threads account is by connecting your Instagram account. One benefit of this is that you can sync your account, to already existing followers on Instagram. However, what they don’t tell you is that if you decide to delete your Threads account, you also delete your Instagram account.
I’m not sure if I would have signed up for a Threads account if I had previously known this information, but I have been enjoying the app so far.
One benefit of Threads, I’ve found, is privacy, I’m able to control who follows me on my account, and decline requests if I don’t want them to follow me. It doesn’t automatically sync my Instagram follower list, rather I’m able to curate it for myself.
I’ve also found Threads to be not as overstimulating as Instagram. When I scroll on Instagram, I’m immediately bombarded with Instagram stories, new posts, DM’s, and various brand advertisements. On Threads, all I see are posts from people I choose to follow. I’m able to engage with my own following, as well as see content I want to see. Maya Martinez is a current CSUB student in her first year. She is currently majoring in Psychology. She recently downloaded Threads, and is a Threads user.
“I created a Threads account, but I don’t use it as often as I thought I would. Honestly, there was a lot of hype surrounding the app, but it quickly died down,’ said Martinez.”
Personally, I still use and check Threads regularly, as I enjoy it.
Now, it’s up to you, which do you prefer? Threads or X? Or, neither?
