"We analyse the migration of 300,000 academic users from Twitter/X to Bluesky between 2023 and early 2025, combining rich bibliometric data, longitudinal social-media activity, and a novel cross-platform identity-matching pipeline. We show that 18% of scholars in our sample transitioned, with transition rates varying sharply by discipline, political expression, and Twitter engagement but not by traditional academic metrics. Using time-varying Cox models and a matched-pairs design, we isolate genuine peer influence from homophily. We uncover a striking asymmetry whereby information sources drive migration far more powerfully than audience, with this influence decaying exponentially within a week. We further develop an ego-level contagion classifier, revealing that simple contagion drives two-thirds of all exits, shock-driven bursts account for 16%, and complex contagion plays a marginal role. Finally, we show that scholars who rebuild a higher fraction of their former Twitter networks on Bluesky remain significantly more active and engaged. Our findings provide new insights onto theories of network externalities, directional influence, and platform migration, highlighting information sources’ central role in overcoming switching costs."

https://arxiv.org/html/2505.24801v1

#SocialMedia#SocialNetworks#Twitter#Bluesky#Academia#Universities#HigherEd

"Instead of thinking about fixing existing platforms - that's done, they're not going to fix themselves - I think it's about developing new platforms. Voting with your feet, getting to places where you want to be."

#KateStarbird, University of Washington, 2024

https://www.techpolicy.press/towards-resilience-a-conversation-with-kate-starbird-about-the-future-of-online-elections-discourse/

(1/2)

#podcasts #TechPolicyPress #SundayShow #SocialMedia #PlatformCapitalism

"My friend said that social media has made people a lot more contemptuous, but I said to him that's crap, you're garbage, burn in hell."

#MichaelSpicer, No Room, s01e01, 2024

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001yzzz

#podcasts#BBC#NoRoom#SocialMedia

Preprint: Why #Academics Are Leaving Twitter for #Bluesky (via #arXiv) https://arxiv.org/abs/2505.24801 @bsky.app #socialmedia

Another excellent column by Gordon Campbell, from a couple of weeks ago, on the crusade against social media use by under-16s.

Campbell looks beyond the obvious privacy risks created by enforcing age limits, to the corporate conservative roots of the policy's Australian variant (particularly Rupert Murdoch's role in it). He mentions the way it violates teens' human rights, and limits their access to peer support;

https://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL2505/S00025/on-the-parental-panic-over-young-kids-online.htm

#SocialMedia#Under16Ban#GordonCampbell#RupertMurdoch

My collection of verified accounts of news organizations, that can be followed from #Mastodon (& anywhere else in the #Fediverse) contains now:

564 federated by @Flipboard
404 on @Mastodon
45 federated by @threads
20 bridged thanks to @snarfed.org
3 federated by @index (#Ghost)
1 on @peertube &
1 on @sharkey

https://fingolas.eu/fediverse/overview.html

Who's missing?

#SocialMedia#News#Press#Media#Threads#BridgyFed#Peertube#Sharkey#Bluesky#Flipboard

"The terms social network and social media are used interchangeably now, but they shouldn’t be. A social network is an idle, inactive system—a Rolodex of contacts, a notebook of sales targets, a yearbook of possible soul mates. But social media is active—hyperactive, really—spewing material across those networks instead of leaving them alone until needed."

#IanBogost, 2022

https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2022/11/twitter-facebook-social-media-decline/672074/

#SocialMedia#SocialNetworking

This is not the first wave of calls for age verification for online services. Here's an article from 2006 about My Space grappling with it, along with other social media platforms popular at the time;

https://www.wired.com/2006/07/myspace-faces-age-old-web-problem/

#SocialMedia#AgeVerification

"When asked, users repeatedly cite 'Nazis' as a problem they would like Twitter to address. After leaving Twitter, writer Lindy West retorted, 'Get back to me when your website isn’t a roiling rat-king of Nazis'.”

#SarahJeong, 2017

https://www.vice.com/en/article/mastodon-is-like-twitter-without-nazis-so-why-are-we-not-using-it/

Melon Husk's weak moderation is a return to the mean, not a break with it. Funny how nostalgic dysphoria has made pre-Husk Titter a fash-free zone that it never really was. At least not for most of its existence.

#SocialMedia #Twitter

🚀 New on #TheFutureIsFederated 👩‍🚀

"This is what resistance to the digital coup looks like"

https://news.elenarossini.com/this-is-what-resistance-to-the-digital-coup-looks-like/

mentioning @jaredwhite @anildash@ghost @caseynewton @molly0xfff @404mediaco @Daojoan @theindex @dangillmor @ryanbroderick @micahflee @melaniebartos @kleisli

I'd love to hear what you think about #AdoptAWriter ✨

#tech#Fediverse #activism#BigTech#SocialMedia#FOSS#FLOSS #blog #resistance#SaveSocial

What are the useful functions of social media? Why are we trying to replace DataFarming with decentralised networks like the fediverse, ATmosphere and Nostr-space, rather than withdrawing from the medium altogether and doing something totally different? What do we want to get out of the time and resources we put into using decentralised social services, or running infrastructure to support them?

(1/2)

#SocialMedia#SocialExperience

I’ve written before about what I’d do if I ran Bluesky or Mastodon. But what if I started from scratch? What would it look like to build a new open social platform - one that's private-by-default, human-centered, and sustainable from day one?

Here’s the blueprint I’d follow: https://werd.io/2025/if-i-started-fresh

#Fediverse #opensource #socialmedia

Around the 1:38:00 mark, Pat and Chewie have an intriguing chat about the practical challenges they see in trying to get off corporate social media platforms;

https://creators.spotify.com/pod/profile/pat-brittenden/episodes/BHN-Brooke-Van-Velden-cancels-Equal-Pay-Act--Chris-Hipkins-on-Erica-Stanfords-emails--Luxon-ban-on-under-16s-on-social-media-e32evtg

Challenge accepted! I'm planning a blog post about what they can try out right now, and what we could build if regulation forced corporate platforms to interop with services/ apps offered by smaller competitors and not-for-profit groups.

Suggestions and perspectives welcome.

#SocialMedia #DigitalTransition

New Preprint: "A Longitudinal Analysis of #Misinformation, Polarization and Toxicity on #Bluesky After Its Public Launch" https://arxiv.org/abs/2505.02317 #socialmedia

"The documentation suggests that [ZuckerBorg and SandBorg] were willing to run FaceBook in China as a government surveillance network. That they would give the Chinese government access to user's data."

#AnnaRawhitiConnell, 2025

https://thespinoff.co.nz/media/01-04-2025/the-fold-careless-people-adolescence-and-where-meta-is-at

Why wouldn't they? As many of us always suspected and Edward Snowdon's leaks confirmed, that's exactly what they do for the US government.

https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/june-5/edward-snowden-discloses-u-s-government-operations

#privacy #surveillance#MassSurveillance#SocialMedia#FaceBook#China#USA

I continue to think about decentralized networks. And I'm wondering, among other things, if we need squares or courtyards, and why good metaphors play a role in wise decisions.

#mastodon #fediverse #activitypub #socialmedia #socialnetworks #selfhosted

https://anders.thoresson.se/post/2025/05/town-squares-backyards-better-metaphors-and-decentralised-networks/