Economist Writing Every Day

I am part of the exodus from Twitter to Bluesky. I still maintain my Twitter account, but do not post there. I do, however, still scroll both of my feeds on occasion. I am more optimistic for the future of Bluesky for a variety of reasons, not least of which is simply that it is improving with each week. The mechanics are excellent, there is far less garbage/noise/bots, and I never feel like I am party to anything with nefarious ambitions in the long or short run. There is a problem though.

It’s still kind of… boring. The echo chamber feeling at Bluesky is stronger, born almost exclusively of the selection effects of first and second movers from Twitter. I am rarely surprised on Bluesky, I never feel terribly challenged in an exciting way, unless you count the more frequent posting of squishy academic policy affirmations. There’s plenty of (warranted) election anxiety, but there’s no oppositional forces. There’s no tension.

Which is not to say Twitter is providing any of that in spades. Quite to the contrary, it’s a shell of its former self. The heaviest posters with the biggest followings have found plenty of reasons to stay, but for every big follower account, there were hundreds of medium sized accounts that pushed and pulled the conversation in interesting directions, providing both traction and the occasional surprise. A large share of medium accounts have abandoned ship, some moving to Bluesky, but far more have just dropped out of the medium entirely (apologies for the homonyms). There are interesting people left on Twitter, but they are inundated with bots, trolls, and milquetoast careerists only hanging around because they fell ass backwards into a couple thousand followers and feel too capital committed to move elsewhere. A once rich and diverse intellectual stew has been watered down into a thin broth of increasingly questionable nutritional value. And like a lot of spicy foods, I know I used to complain about the heat while I was eating it, but damned if I don’t miss it all the same.

Bluesky has passed the proof of concept. It works. It has value. Now we just need that final cohort to make the leap and bring the heat.

UPDATE ADDENDUM (10/22/24)

So THAT happened. Most people who are going to read it have already read it, but I did want to add two notes for future reference, both of which I tacked onto bluesky threads.

1. What I actually miss is the policy/econ/metrics nerds having esoteric discussion full of rivalry and verve. Yes, it was parallel to all kinds of trash, but it was sufficiently insulated. I have quite purposely come to Bluesky because Twitter is now full of nazis, bots, and nazi bots. I promise I don’t miss the nazis
2. I’ll admit I didn’t expect the word “tension” to get parsed as “negative approbation” , trauma, horrific violence, or hate. I could blame this on the internet, but this is my fault. I’ve been around long enough I should have know better. There is a reason why I tend to write things that come off pre-emptively defensive or as if they are equivocating. I try to prevent misinterpretation, willful or earnest, of my words. I should have done a better job here.
3. People are rightfully protective of Bluesky as a space separate from Twitter. That said, there are definitely a lot of trolls and bots already in place trying to turning any discourse into a hatefest.