Mastodon and Instagram Can’t Replace Twitter
They operate with completely different dynamics and intent.
In the matter of barely of fortnight, a $44 billion shitpost upended countless lives as employees flee or get fired for the tiniest transgressions.
There’s a whole other essay in the wings about how no one should have that kind of money to just cavalierly buy a massive mode of communication that millions of people rely on for everything from news to community-building to dating, but it won’t change the fact that this is irrevocably messing with peoples’ lives and livelihoods.
Speaking as a games industry professional, Twitter was essentially our LinkedIn. Most of the very online set of games folks have migrated to Mastodon, Cohost, and Discord. But these platforms are just absolutely nothing like Twitter.
They’re a stopgap for the foreseeable future. But there is no way they could possibly replace Twitter for both industry-facing purposes and connecting with fans, the press, and people who may have never played a game in their lives then found themselves unable to turn away from a point-and-click adventure game that was barely discussed.
As someone who’s lived through various eras of the Internet, lately I’ve been parsing why people migrated from various platforms even…
