Threads versus Twitter: Shouldn't we be happy the wheels are falling off antisocial social media?

Register Kettle It feels like for years we've been moaning about the disastrous effect of social media on society.

There are lots of accusations you can throw at the big networks: for instance, they've ruined people's attention spans, destroyed intelligent debate, and driven wedges between us all. Now nobody does anything unless it sparks enragement, sorry, engagement.

We could just not look at it, and ignore it, and touch grass as the kids say. But there useful sides to social media: live breaking news direct from journalists, experts with actual info to share, official announcements and confirmations, or just entertaining stuff.

Generally, though, you'd think we'd all be overjoyed that social networks are sharding, with Twitter losing the plot, Threads unraveled by Meta, BlueSky emerging, and Mastodon tempting us.

We've published pieces calling for a return to a decentralized internet. Is a fragmented web what we really want? Shouldn't we be celebrating the end of centralized online power?

That's the topic of our vultures tackled for this week's Kettle podcast, which you can watch below.

From top left going clockwise in the thumbnail, we have Brandon Vigliarolo, Thomas Claburn, Chris Williams, and host Iain Thomson. All yours to view in just nine seconds and 16 minutes. ®