Yesterday morning followed its usual pattern of early morning events for me, but for one notable change in circumstance. On the iphone I reach for the second my eyes open a decorous new squiggle avatar appeared, a memorable addition to the banking apps, endless snapshots, email chains, texts, whatsapps, notes, calendars, weather veins, Wordle reminders, headlines, playlists, DMs and (cough, cough) all that other stuff which lives on our hand-held brains. Before the customary cup of tea and cuddle, the telephone was ready to roll and scroll me into a day fresh with possibilities, potholed with familiar digital landmines. Now with added Threads.
By the time I woke up, there was already a boastful news bulletin circulated from Threads parent corporation, Meta. Like animals lining up two-by-two to enter Noah’s ark, in disarmingly similar socio-political times, a cool ten million had so far signed up to Threads, Mark Zuckerberg’s sword drawn in a thinly disguised billionaire’s pissing contest with Elon Musk. A new dawn for social media? It was not yet 7am.
