I joined Bluesky on May 2 2023 after what seemed a long time on the wait list. Once I was in I began to receive between 3-5 invite codes I was able to forward to friends and colleagues. I was keen to encourage those on Twitter I was connected to and considered part of my valued network to create an account on Bluesky.
Over the last year I have seen a gently influx of people I know joining Bluesky but myself including the post and interactions have been minimal. Last month Jisc and ALT made an anouncement they were leaving Twitter (or at least no longer posting there). It was from this point that traffic increased and I started to re(connect) with those who had either ledt Twitter or stopped tweeting.
For many I sensed that due to the goings on in the other space, some had gone on to try other social networks such as Mastoden or Threads, were possible also trying to interact in LinkedIn and overall were feeling overloaded. The thought of joining another space was too much.
According to the July 2024 Datareportal report the average number of social media platforms that internt uses use actively each month rises from 5.1 for ages 55-64 to 7.4 ages 16-24.
On September 12 2023 Bluesky reached 1 million users. As of March 2024, Bluesky had over 5.2 million users.
Bluesky @bsky.app last week announced they now had 10 million users. They created a link to download a badge dentifying the date you joined and where you were in the lineup of followers.
My Bluesky badge shows that I currently stand in the first 1% and designted as a Certified Bluesky Elder.
If you would like to connect with me on Bluesky you can find my profile here: @suebecks.bsky.social
The Digital 2024 July Global Statshot Report identifies the primary reasons why social media users use social media. One of the key irritations when using social media (aside from what is shared by some) is what content is being shown to you due to the algorithmic manipulation of people’s timelines. People want to see posts from friends and in the order they are posted.
Datareportal (2024, page 267)
Bluesky’s vision is this:
We want a future where you control what you see on social media. We aim to replace the conventional “master algorithm,” controlled by a single company, with an open and diverse “marketplace of algorithms.”
You have three standard feeds to follow: Following, Discover and Popular with friends. Discover mixes in a global view of what’s trending in the network with posts from accounts you follow and posts from accounts near your social graph.
You then choose to create or follow Lists or follow a Custom feed (currently this needs developer experience to create). Features on Bluesky are contiually being developed.
References
Datareportal (2024) Digital 2024 July Global Statshot Report. https://datareportal.com/reports/digital-2024-july-global-statshot
Graber (2023) Algorithmic choice. Bluesky Blog. March 30 2023. https://bsky.social/about/blog/3-30-2023-algorithmic-choice
