Social media takes up many people’s phone screens — whether it’s an Instagram direct message notification, a like on Facebook, or a new video being shared on TikTok. In the past decade, many Americans’ lives have been overtaken by social media.
Just over two years ago on Oct. 28, 2022, Tesla CEO Elon Musk announced that he had bought the popular app Twitter. Musk’s acquisition of Twitter and transformation of it into the app now known as “X” brought in a new era of social media.
“[Musk] let it be known what he wanted to do with the platform before he bought it in terms of getting rid of some of the content moderation and just the kinds of things he wanted to do,” Melissa Tully, the director of the UI School of Journalism and Mass Communication, said.
With Musk at the helm of one of the most popular social media apps, many users have been looking for alternatives to Musk’s app, which is now filled with ads and promotional content for Musk.
“I always see his tweets even though I don’t want to. They’re always there … I think he kind of ruined the app,” UI first-year Mark Moseman said.
Moseman is now considering exploring Bluesky.
Bluesky is a social media app released in 2021. The company, which was formed by former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, has seen large increases in users of the app since Musk’s acquisition of Twitter and also since the recent election.
“I think we’re already kind of getting fed up with Twitter for lots of different reasons. And so it gave people a kind of an out or an opportunity to say, ‘That’s the last straw,’” Tully said.
Similarly to X, Bluesky’s aim is to promote open dialogue and community engagement.
According to Bluesky’s user count, the company has over 24 million users and is growing by more than 1.2 users every second.
Part of its growth goes hand in hand with former president Trump being re-elected to office — specifically, the role Musk has played in Trump’s election and now administration.
“He’s very close with President Trump, and so I think people saw that now he was going to be really close to power, executive power, in the U.S. government. So, that was another opportunity for people to leave the platform,” Tully said.
In the day following the election, X saw 115,414 account deactivations.
Bluesky hit 15 million users after the election and now 24 million users. Tully said the app is offering a strong alternative for users who don’t want to play a role in Musk’s world.
Part of Bluesky’s success, according to Tully, is its simple user interface. The familiar layout is similar to Twitter’s former layout and even utilizes the same iconic colors of blue and white.
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“They’re leaning into features and functionality that people understand and trying to make it relatively seamless. So, if you go to the platform, it feels like something you know about, and they have some mechanisms to try to help people get going,” Tully said.
An example of those mechanisms are “starter packs,” which are groups of accounts users can follow based on a certain topic. There are premade starter packs for different things like Hawkeye Sports, or users can create their own packs with their favorite accounts.
Bluesky is using what they call an AT protocol to create transparency in their app.
According to their website, AT protocol is for public conversation and a framework for building social apps. This is in place for users to have more transparency within the app.
“[X’s] algorithm is designed to promote or downgrade certain kinds of content. That has been an issue for a long time in social media, particularly as we saw feeds be more algorithmically determined and not just time-based,” Tully said.
According to Bluesky’s website, the app aims to provide a space where misinformation can be combated as more people, especially of younger generations, are turning to social media for their daily news.
“I usually use TikTok [for news]. I don’t really follow any news accounts, I just look at whatever comes on my ‘For You’ page,” Natalie Snyder, a UI first-year business major, said.
Snyder relies on the apps they use every day to get news rather than seeking out other sources. But Tully said that if you are smart about using social media, you can create a safe space in which to receive news.
“If you are using social media for your news, you can curate the accounts so you are following actual news sources or journalists or experts, but you could curate a place on social media that’s full of news if you wanted to. It’s hard, but you could do it,” Tully said.