“Are you on Threads?” my husband asked me. I smirked. “Of course, I am.”

Threads, a new social media app launched July 5 by Meta co-founder, chair, and chief executive officer Mark Zuckerberg, was poised to be the first real rival to Twitter. In fact, Twitter owner Elon Musk was so concerned that by July 6, he threatened to sue.

During the pandemic, Twitter became my most beloved social media app. I knew TikTok was a video-based app. Instagram was photo-based. But Twitter was driven by words. It was a conversation app. Breaking news often hit Twitter long before it was on websites or cable networks. Academics posted links to research. Politicians and policy wonks followed each other. Advocates discussed legislation and often made big waves because of their efforts on Twitter. I had experienced it personally. Sure, you could still find cute animal photos for levity if you wanted to. But Twitter was about the written word. *Swoon*

Then Musk came along and ruined it. The “town square” exchange of ideas required paid verification, while trolls and misinformation arose. My threads became filled with ads and people I didn’t follow. Musk quickly became the “Chief Twit,” and employees and users were swiftly flying the coop.

I tried alternatives like Post, Mastodon, and Spoutible. All had benefits, but nothing felt right. Not one was seamless or allowed the importation of accounts you followed. The FOMO (Fear of Missing Out) was never a draw, but with Threads, the lure of a viable replacement for Twitter piqued my interest. So of course, I wanted to open an account immediately.

I was late to the game. July 5 was my birthday (more on that in another column …) But come July 6 I was downloading the Threads app to my phone. The bad news? You needed an Instagram account to set up Threads. The good news? I had one. I did have to keep the same user handle on both apps. (Fine by me, but a shame for someone who uses @ipaintcatclaws207.) Also at the time, it seemed like a great idea to say yes to the option to follow all the accounts I follow on Instagram. (More on that in a minute.) It was a breeze. Within seconds, I was scrolling through something that felt almost identical to Twitter. Sweet!

Except, the sweetness was short-lived. Why was I seeing a post from one of the Kardashians?! Or @wasted? I didn’t know any of these people! What. Was. Happening?! Ok, @voxdotcom was there. What about other news sources? I quickly searched for BBCNews, the New York Times, Washington Post, and centralmaine.com too! Yes. Yes. Yes. And yes! But these accounts didn’t show up in my feed. Rather there were posts from accounts I didn’t follow. Nothing was identified as “promoted” as it used to be on Twitter. Worse, the suggestions were mostly off-base. This was starting to feel like Twitter 2.0.  I hadn’t expected this.

And it became more unexpected. I got an alert that someone had “accepted” my “Follow Request” and was now following me too. Wait. What?! Anyone I had previously followed on Instagram and had just joined Threads had received a notification in the form of a “request” from me. But I hadn’t sent one. Yikes. I quickly went through my list of “Follow” accounts and deleted any I didn’t want to send a request to. (If you use social media, you know what I’m talking about. Here’s a chance to clean house!)

In just a week, Threads has amassed over 109 million users. It may have the look and feel of Twitter. But it isn’t a replacement. At least not yet.

Instagram is different than Twitter. Importing the accounts I followed there may have been a mistake. Because Instagram is a photo-based, active accounts I follow don’t necessarily translate to a word-based app, and don’t provide the content I’m looking for. Taking time to cultivate a list will probably be worth the effort. However, the inability to see only people you follow, or should I say the money-driven, mega monster of Facebook/Meta force feeding me content keeps me from engaging with Threads for more than a few minutes at a time.

Ironically, the Facebook/Instagram mothership is successful at keeping users’ attention. Threads’ failure to do this and the inability to search hashtags or keywords — which is invaluable for something like #mepolitics — if left unchanged will almost definitely drive me away. Except, get this, users can’t delete their accounts without deleting their Instagram accounts too.

Suffering from FOMO? Maybe wait a bit longer. Meta’s Threads might always be able to claim millions of users, but it may quickly become a stagnant app. Like millions of threads hanging off a piece of clothing, left dangling.

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