Our once beloved bird app, Twitter, has been through quite a bit of turmoil as of late. Since ownership transferred into the hands of tech mogul and eccentric billionaire Elon Musk, we’ve seen the introduction of a paid subscription service, tweet viewing limits, janky image cropping and the complete and total image destruction of the historically coveted blue tick.
In its demise, challengers have inevitably presented themselves, looking to gobble up Twitter’s increasingly cranky user base. There was a brief period where we all thought we were moving to Mastodon, then Bluesky, then there was the uncharacteristically warm embrace of BeReal, and now, there is Threads.
Built by Meta to be used in tandem with Instagram, Threads is essentially Insta’s version of Twitter - a word-based Instagram, if you can imagine such a thing. It’s been pegged as the one true alternative to Musk’s volatile social media service, but if there’s one thing netizens hate, it’s change. And if there’s one thing they love, it’s mocking that change.
Threads has already been criticised for being “buggy” and lacking “basic features”, like how every new follower needs to be approved via request, in the manner of a private Instagram account, or how the app would occasionally crash when users attempted to upload images with their threads.
These issues aside, Threads’ launch was at least relatively successful in terms of sign ups, with 10 million users joining the app in under 10 hours. And boy, oh boy, can 10 million people provide some entertaining reactions. Here’s some of the best.
Mark Zuckerberg returns to Twitter for the first time in 12 years to tweet this
— Mark Zuckerberg (@finkd) July 6, 2023
On the Threads vibe being a bit... off
IG famous people posting on threads like “morning coffee ❤️” I can’t do this??????????
— Mike 📈 CEO @ ijbol industries (@mikesmicYT) July 6, 2023
I am a woman of substance now
Choose your fighter
everyone on threads rn pic.twitter.com/siU5AeUGni
— Fraser 🤠 (@JediNabber) July 6, 2023
Derry Girls always provides
Two worlds collide
Me introducing my Twitter followers to my Instagram followers on Threads pic.twitter.com/xYzBP7LHMR
— Joe Potkins (@josephpotkins) July 6, 2023
They all look vaguely similar and I can’t keep up
Time to merge your online personas
our instagram and twitter persona meeting in the middle on threads pic.twitter.com/KZS339Rmxl
— ❒ (@RlCKYRAGE) July 6, 2023
It’s not a real social media app if it doesn’t have a Ben Affleck smoking meme
Are we gonna have to be... polite
Wait, forget Twitter and Threads, what about a secret third option
Me and the boys rocking up on Linkedin when Twitter goes bump pic.twitter.com/rKrpOjxWa3
— Eugene (@eugeneh84) July 6, 2023