I have a theory (well, two theories) why Threads has been so successful. Meta launched it this week, and they already have more than 70 million downloads, which is bananas.
If you haven’t gone on yet, I suggest you do. It reminds me of the wild, early social media days when it was actually — well, fun.
Which gets me to my theories. Threads has blown up the past few days because:
1. Everyone hates Elon (and loves to talk about it)
It’s no secret that Meta created Threads pulling from Twitter’s book – exactly as they did with Snapchat for Stories (still my favorite Instagram feature) after Snap rejected an acquisition offer (which…), and more recently, plucking from TikTok for Reels.
Social media in general is tough right now as far as who has their hands on the gears – Mark Zuckerburg has … so much power – but ever since that fever dream of Elon offering to buy out Twitter, and then it becoming a reality (I still can’t believe it actually happened), Twitter has been … complicated.
It’s kind of like those birds people eat in France with their head under a napkin – just, you can’t put a napkin over your head when you’re driving a Tesla.
Anyway, I think that there’s a huge swath of people (70 million of them, perhaps?) that have been looking for an excuse to ditch Twitter, despite the years of building up a community and having followers etc etc. It isn’t a clean solve, but I think people (myself included) simply feel better (read: more smug) about using it because it’s pissing off Elon Musk. (Even Amtrak is trolling him. It’s delicious.) Not that everyone loves Mark, but in the cage fight of it all (again, which …), I certainly have a preference and I will happily play on Threads until the Apartheid Prince goes back to time out.
2. Everyone hates Instagram (but is afraid to talk about it)
The data sharing, the misinformation, the wasted time or unhealthy effect on young people’s self-image – all of this we’ve talked about with Instagram. Of course it has its challenges that we’re all very aware of. But I think there’s this feeling, at least among the *elder millennials*, that Instagram is our platform de choix and … it kind of sucks now.
The algorithm pushes so much trash our way that we don’t even have the opportunity to see the content we want to see. The aforementioned features, built into the app to attack the competition and keep you on the platform, make it hard to sign off, yes, but also to understand even where to go and what to look for. And then there’s the ads. (Threads is ad-free, for now.)
Even though we know it’s terrible, there’s a whole “I wish I knew how to quit you” with IG. That app is ours. It was so definitive of our 20s and early years. It’s hard to close the book on that. (Even today, at my day job, which I generally refuse to write about so consider this breadcrumb a treat, so many decisions are made solely based on organic social — linear timed posting, community size — even though that’s not how marketing has worked on the platforms for years; the power of 2014 lives on.)
Instagram is no longer making us happy, and we know it. We’re tied up in DMs and keeping up with the Kardashians and don’t know – and maybe fear – what our lives will look like without it, without that jolt of recognition and likes and whatever else, so we keep opening and opening and opening.
Enter Threads, which smartly was not another IG feature, but a separate app tied to your IG account. I think people are just ready for something fresh and different. Downloads soar, time on app goes up. I doubt Meta will release this but I wouldn’t be surprised if it started to match time on app with IG in the first few days. It will likely cool, but again, a large percentage of folks are likely ready for something new that isn’t as big of a commitment as watching TikTok videos (needing sound on, spending more time watching vs scrolling, etc.)
Threads feels like a party right now, which is a lot of fun. Of course, the first hour of a party usually is. The rest of the night could go in any direction. Someone could start a fight. Someone could get too drunk and make an ass of themselves. You could get too drunk and make an ass of yourself.
But it also could end up being a really great party. We’ll see where the hosts take it. I’m having a great time right now. I just hope it lasts.