Threads Has 400 Million Monthly Users. But Who Are They?

Threads now has more than 400 million monthly active users. But who are these people who are actually using Threads, asks Mashable? And what is their cultural footprint? Threads is the Big Bang Theory of social media. Bland, boring, largely unoffensive, and somehow, it was the most popular show on television for years... At any given time, "Twitter" and "X" are searched somewhere between 12 and 30 times more than "Threads" on Google, according to the search engine's Trends data. Threads is a popular platform without much of an identity...

[Threads] is consistently good at one thing users really want from a social media platform: for their posts to be seen and engaged with. Threads might be boring in comparison to its competitors, but its users say it might be the only place on the internet right now where they don't feel they are screaming into the void.... Much like TikTok, you don't actually have to have thousands of followers to find decent engagement on the app. One user, commenting in a Reddit forum questioning who actually uses the app, said they "find it worthwhile" because "you can just say stuff on there under a tag and people will find it and respond...." According to consumer research company GWI, while users signed up for Threads because of its integration with Instagram, they're staying because Threads users are "community-focused," noting there's a strong overlap between Discord users and Threads users....

It just doesn't have the same flair as X or Twitter, which could be because Adam Mosseri, the head of Instagram, went out of his way to ensure politics was downplayed when Threads first launched. (Meta has since backtracked slightly by phasing "civic content" back into Threads "with a more personalized approach....") Threads is still in its adolescence. It lacks the media ecosystem that made Twitter indispensable for journalists, politicians, and celebrities. But it has something else: sheer scale and Meta's backing. With Instagram's 2 billion users as a feeder system, Meta can keep funneling people toward Threads whether they like it or not.
The article also points out Threads is integrated with the fediverse, supporting ActivityPub's decentralized protocol...

Re:

[rossdee]

Rick Flair used to be a wrestler, I dunno if he is still alive.

Re:

[EditorDavid]

I think you read that wrong. The Reddit user said they found Threads worthwhile. (They were just responding to someone who'd asked why people used Threads...) Then Mashable also cites consumer research company GWI (which found a much larger trend of Thread users saying the liked how it's "community-focused"). And finally Mashable points out the executive who launched the big experiment in running less political content [which may or may not reduce its "flair" -- but it's worth considering its impact].

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[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

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[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

'Big Bang' of social media?!?

[Sebby]

Threads is the Big Bang Theory of social media

What?!? I've never found that Privacy Rapists' site anywhere near as funny, insightful, or hilariously trolling as the show.

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[Anonymous Coward]

Threads is the Big Bang Theory of social media

What?!? I've never found that Privacy Rapists' site anywhere near as funny, insightful, or hilariously trolling as the show.

Threads, Twitter/X all fall into the same category of sub-human space on the internet we ironically call “social” media that has manufactured more introvert humans than anything else on this planet ever has. It’s the place where lies are currency and deception is considered a sales tactic.

Lets try and remember those facts when people try and compare it to anything else we’ve ever created. Ever.

Anyone still pimping the benefits of social media, is sadly wholly reliant on selling tha

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[thegarbz]

What?!? I've never found that Privacy Rapists' site anywhere near as funny, insightful, or hilariously trolling as the show.

Imagine them explaining the analogy in the following sentence and still missing the point...

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[Sebby]

WHERE IS MY LAWSUIT!?

Something went off of the rails here...

[ndsurvivor]

In my 30 years of trying to make electronics and computers reliable, and easy to use... I can't help but to feel that it is being misused. It should bring people together, and not help them to fight. It should be a place for facts, and reliable information. It should help productivity, and not criminals.

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[eneville]

Advertisers made it terrible

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[systemd-anonymousd]

Normies made it terrible. Computers were better when women found it icky and most men couldn't care less

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[ndsurvivor]

I think that you are correct. Myself, I am cheap. I hardly pay for even my streaming service (I get free or nearly free offers all of the time). I don't do facebook, or any of that crap. I do believe that if you don't pay for a service, then you are the product. I had hope for micropayments in the past, but that did not seem to emerge. One thing I know for sure is that I do not like advertisements at all, and I think that all people who look at them are suckers. I think.. Keep life simple, and sw

Re: Something went off of the rails here...

[Big Hairy Gorilla]

I think the word you are looking for here is "abuse". Internet users are like children and social media is like a bad uncle.

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[ndsurvivor]

I feel like we are still in the teen age years of internet usage, I really hope we all grow up.

Obvious

[Baloo Uriza]

They're all irrelevant. Their moderation policy got them blanket banned by a majority of the fediverse (including all of the major instances).

Cultural footprint

[Rosco P. Coltrane]

Without knowing anything else about Threads users, I know one thing: they're people who don't mind using a Zuckerberg product and being subjected to intense corporate surveillance by Meta.

That tells me everything I need to know about them.

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[ndsurvivor]

The other day, a conversation was started about a VAX tax in the USA, and I'm thinking... what value does Zuk add to anything?

As long as they don't tax my Re:Cultural footprint

[davidwr]

PDP-11.

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[thegarbz]

they're people who don't mind using a Zuckerberg product

I know this will surprise a lot of Slashdot but the overwhelming majority of the world doesn't give a shit about culture wars or personality cults. Many Threads users probably can't even spell Zuckerberg (Musk is shorter and easier, but 5+ letters and you loose a lot of the audience). This is social media, precisely zero fucks are given about "surveillance", it is literally about shouting everything out to the world to hear.

The reality is many people do the things they do because they need to do them. My si

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[eneville]

My sister hates Facebook and Twitter with a passion, but the nature of her job means she needs to maintain accounts on all social media systems.

Serious question, would a mail list suffice? Most social media is overwhelming algorithm that doesn't update you with interests outside of the last five minutes.

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[strikethree]

Without knowing anything else about Threads users, I know one thing: they're people who don't mind using a Zuckerberg product and being subjected to intense corporate surveillance by Meta.

Without knowing anything else about you, I know one thing: you are someone who does not realize that everything performed on your phone is reported in exquisite detail to corporations and government entities.

That tells me everything I need to know about you.

(hopefully, this made you think, but honestly, it probably just made you mad at me. *shrug*)

Re: Who are they or is it What are they?

[daten]

Instagram relentlessly tries to funnel users into Threads. It only takes on click on Threads content that's injected into an IG feed and how you're a Threads user. This can easily explain the count but it doesn't mean they're real, intentional or relevant users.

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[leonbev]

Facebook seems to do the same thing. Usually with some clickbait post tweaked for maximum engagement, like some woman posting that they're getting better fuel mileage by inflating their tires to 50 psi. Stuff like that will trigger boomers and naive Gen X'ers to come out of the wood work to warn her that what she's doing is a bad idea.

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[rsilvergun]

Facebook isn't very good at much of anything but they are good at one thing which is tricking users into engaging.

So I would expect a lot of those users if not most of them are engaging with the content.

Facebook Bots

[Bradac_55]

That's who they are.

Bots! Lots of bots!

[p51d007]

Runs the numbers up makes it look better. Heck, I bet 99% of the "social media" garbage is bots.

I bet 375 million are AI and bots

[FudRucker]

Got to keep those numbers pumped up, right Zuckerberg?

X Own Goal

[Mandrel]

X's pay-to-win approach (buy Premium or shout into the void) is coming back to bite them.

Who are they?

[bill_mcgonigle]

People who trust Zuckerberg.

(the reader may fill in the next phrase)

No funny yet?

[shanen]

So I'll make the obvious joke:

"Threads has users and not users. And I am not one of them."

Nothing from Zuck, thank you and no thank you please.

screaming

[groobly]

If they feel like they are screaming into the void, maybe they should stop screaming.

Bots.

[Peterus7]

Bots and people who accidentally clicked out of Instagram.