Embracing Threads for a more focused and meaningful digital writing eventually, leaving the noise of Twitter behind.

While Instagram users are still deciphering why Reels garner more interaction compared to other content types, navigating the realm of post-prime time and strategies that outsmart algorithms with TikTok watermarked videos, Meta introduced an unexpected player: Threads. The fragile display of masculine bravado in the Elon Musk vs. Mark Zuckerberg feud, which could be further explored in a separate blog post, clearly demonstrates that technology today evolves based on societal needs and shapes everyday life within digital culture.

Recently, I noticed that I’m more active on Instagram than before. No, it’s not because I have more photos to share due to a vacation. On the contrary, I can be active on Instagram without sharing pictures. This is because Threads posts can also be shared on Instagram, thanks to the integrated system within the application. Putting aside the debates between Twitter and Threads, in the discussion between Threads and Instagram, while I think that Instagram will always come out on top, I believe that Threads will be embraced more by a specific group: textual digital content creators. In this article, I’m writing a discussion briefing on the fast and complex history of social media between those who monetize through social media personas and those who engage in digital writing.

Introduction: Navigating the Digital Landscape

One could briefly trace the rapid evolution of social media from its early 21st-century origins, starting with short Twitter messages limited to 140 characters and posting instant photos with basic Instagram filters. It evolved from there to encompassing business endeavors and the integration of e-commerce into daily habits. However, the swift emergence of this digital trend also carries significant social and political implications. For instance, the Occupy movements across various global locations transformed Twitter into a communication tool for democratization efforts. This led to a concurrent increase in Twitter’s user base. Subsequently, the COVID-19 pandemic made Instagram the focal point of life during lockdowns. Not only was it one of the main tools, along with Zoom, for personal and professional connections with family, friends, neighbors, colleagues, and other networks, but people also gathered during Livestreams.

Furthermore, the economic crisis brought about by the pandemic, the rise in unemployment, and the allure of the hustling economy, with its appeal of working from home, low taxes, and flexible job opportunities, have all taken center stage. Yet, these are precarious jobs, requiring individuals to secure their health insurance and leaving them with meager retirement plans. Therefore, the more one can hustle and set aside, the better. At this point, Instagram’s influences in our lives continue to grow compared to other platforms. Following Meta’s acquisition of Instagram, the infrastructure has enhanced to the extent that performing various activities within a single app is possible: surveilling each other, exchanging daily updates, showcasing, exploring new books, discovering new restaurants, tracking discounts, and even direct shopping on the platform — to name just a few.

On the one hand, over time, specifically, until Elon Musk bought and announced to change the user culture, Twitter has evolved into a platform primarily for political exchange under cover of “social media activism” — reflecting the daily social causes directly, commenting about every topic regardless of any experience in the concerning field, and the lamest self-promotion in the pursuit of a significant career, such as a journalist, author, scholar, NGO employee, or lawyer, representing a persona to catch and keep attention alive. On the other hand, Instagram has become a platform perceived as constant happiness: styling for dinner, having a café at a popular pâtisserie, having morning skincare, or decorating one’s home. Under these circumstances, professional social media users have become experienced in posting their content across platforms. In other words, an unspoken consensus has emerged about whether to be on Twitter or Instagram. Indeed, in the post-division process, the choice of social media depends on the content’s target groups concerning the topic. For instance, when one gets angry, one tweets about it but posts on Instagram, for example, after recovering from anger. There is a famous saying: “We tweet about the price increase of the iPhone, but post on Instagram the photos taken by that high-priced iPhone.” In other words, the post division depends not on the content type, textual or visual, but on the message. Under these circumstances of clear frontiers between the two applications, Meta introduced Threads, an application that replicates Twitter’s functionality. Why? Is it just a display of male rivalry? I don’t think so. It’s more about collecting data and converting it into profit through marketing. Meta’s dissatisfaction with just Facebook and the acquisition of Instagram and WhatsApp are similar. By gathering data from different platforms, they aim to create the most accurate individual profile of users and transform them into marketable data. This naturally leads to profits from advertising and sponsored content.

Consequently, today, social media has become a spectacle where regular content production yields consistent viewership, allowing anyone to represent a persona and develop their social and economic capital. One can argue that this is the simplest explanation for the inevitable emergence of getting paid only by being online on social media. Indeed, introducing Influencers to marketing had a parallel impact on the concept of the opinion leader, who shapes society. Instead of checking the quality of the content, random people gained popularity by aggressively posting on particular issues and claiming their power based on their follower count. Here, I’m not talking about the Influencers promoting cosmetics on Livestream but highlighting the fundamental shift in textual content for digital writing.

Twitter’s Evolution and Instagram’s Appeal

Even in the early periods of Twitter, writing an opinion on the Internet was challenging, while writing for a profession was an issue by itself. But in the course of the growing social media platforms, societal behaviors became accustomed to writing. They perceived the act of writing as a random simple ability: Everybody writes every day, all day, whether it’s an email, a WhatsApp text, captions on Instagram, or blog posts!

Blogging, in its early years, fascinated me. I was attending the university, and it was my senior year. One of my professors, with whom I had a closer relationship, gave me the advice of my life: “If you want to write better, you have to write regularly.” Then I decided to open a blog in 2007 on Blogger, which was bought by Google. I posted almost every week about a book I read, a movie I saw, or an emotion I pursued. Looking back, it feels like keeping an online journal open to the public. I remember how exciting it was to receive comments from unknown people. Later, I had a community following, reading, and commenting on each other’s lives. It was all personal. Naturally, some bloggers gained more popularity than others, and later they published books. When the game changed with more engagement from visual content instead of textual, blogging became inevitably less active and primarily unpopular. However, establishing social media platforms where one can get paid for blogging, such as Medium, Patreon, and Substack, somehow brought attention back to textual content. Indeed, financially supporting textual content appeared as a societal need.

Especially in countries under oppressive governments, media censorship is prevalent. Opposing journalists, authors, and intellectual public figures have either been silenced by mass media or imprisoned by governments. Therefore, subscription to digital writing emerged as a solidarity with marginalized communities, such as women, LGBTQ, and refugees. Indeed, paywalls for writers initially have neoliberal economic models: the basic model of sellers and buyers, and on the other hand, paying posts for marketing sellers and a side economy for those who claim they can teach the model. I believe the perception of writing as a random ability has been perpetuated by so-called bloggers, who are essentially simple AI generators. A few days ago, someone told me that they run some questions with AI and then post their answers on their blogs. Excuse me! I was surprised by how casually he approached this; how smart he felt. Because anything related to writing is making money for him. He is just ambitious for side hustling. Therefore, he generates online content as much as possible in the shortest time. Bravo, Einstein! You’ve just “produced” another piece of nonsensical textual content. If Walter Benjamin witnessed the democratization of writing, would he say: “Selling online writing killed the personal concern in writing”?

Nevertheless, the audience for digital writing is limited. Therefore, bloggers usually cross-post their content to reach a broader audience on social media platforms, including Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram. However, posting on Instagram requires visual pre-work unless one embeds textual content into visual posts. Hence, it poses a fundamental barrier for a significant group of people. For instance, those who generate textual content, like me, are less likely to create content on Instagram than a performing artist. This is where Threads comes into play, bridging the gap between Twitter user habits and Instagram’s visual nature. The in-app feature of posting Threads to Instagram Story and Post enables converting textual content into visual content with just one click.

Threads: A Bridge Across Platforms

Moreover, the recent updates on Twitter after Elon Musk’s purchase have confronted me that today, tweeting often means remaining within an echo chamber or engaging in constant discussions with uneducated conservative right-populist minds. No, staying away from it safely is not possible. Even though I, personally, didn’t judge anyone on Twitter, I found myself involved in cases where readers lacked the capacity to understand what I wrote. I’m sorry, but this is not arrogance. Despite an increase in educational levels, the quality of education has typically been influenced by anti-feminist and racist governments. As a result, when one says, “human rights for ALL,” others understand “refugees threaten our nation.” Or when one supports abortion rights, they are accused of destroying the family. There’s no room for dialogue because there’s no interest in listening to each other. In short, this is not the platform I signed up for to share my writing. I closed my personal Twitter account, burying a history of over 10 years in the ground, and started a new one from scratch under my blog name, which I rarely use.

I’m not yet very active on Threads, either. Partly because I would rather not engage in a test run while the application’s infrastructure is still being completed, and partly because there isn’t a thriving community yet. For instance, those with over 10K followers on Twitter either reject entirely the idea of migrating to a new platform to prevent their ideas from getting “lost,” or they’re attempting to manage both platforms economically. Nowadays, rather than engaging with others, I mostly post daily notes on Threads and share them on Instagram Stories to feed the Meta algorithm as a digital writer. Indeed, I don’t have a particular prediction concerning the shift from Twitter to Threads. One main argument posits that Threads can’t surpass the established communities on Twitter. But what happens if Threads integrates new features promoting the online job market?

However, I have never managed my digital writing according to social media platforms solely focused on gaining followers. Although I’ve always wanted to mainly discuss my academic and professional work or ideas from books I’ve read, I’ve never maintained consistency, not even for two days. Meanwhile, people have started throwing affect-provoking simple statements on Canva templates and claiming to post for feminist awareness, LGBTQ rights advocacy, empowerment, and mental support. I don’t need to mention that they are simply AI generators not interested in digital writing but in representing a persona for the online job market. Indeed, they have nothing to do with writing beyond producing quote graphics to collaborate with brands. I would rather not engage in this kind of digital writing in the long run. In my daily routine, I like to post ideas that usually arise as I stroll around the city.

Additionally, I believe it’s unique content for textual digital content creators. It simultaneously feeds algorithms and constantly engages with readers by posting on topics they are reading, updating them on the progress of new pieces, and promoting their offerings for both digital and non-digital job markets. Returning to preferring Threads to Instagram as a freelancer textual digital content creator: Keeping my daily thoughts on Threads and sharing them via Instagram Stories appeals to me.

Interplay of Technology, Society, and Expression

Consequently, the choice between Threads and Instagram isn’t merely a matter of personal preference; it encapsulates the intricate interplay between technology, societal needs, and individual expression. In a landscape where content creation serves as both a means of personal expression and an economic pursuit, the interactions among these platforms will persistently shape the trajectory of digital writing.