What Happens to X With No More Libs to Troll?

Leah Feiger: And in the studio with me is WIRED reporter Vittoria Elliott. Hey, Tori.

Vittoria Elliott: Hey, Leah.

Leah Feiger: Guys, how are you doing? What social media platforms are you on right now?

Vittoria Elliott: A violent question if I’m honest. I’m all in on Bluesky.

Leah Feiger: Yeah?

Vittoria Elliott: Oh yeah.

Leah Feiger: OK.

Vittoria Elliott: I’m just hanging out and people are following me. It’s the lowest lift of any platform I’ve had to engage in in a while.

Leah Feiger: So you just like the attention?

Vittoria Elliott: I do just like the attention. I love getting little pings on my phone every day validating me.

Leah Feiger: It’s what Twitter used to be for so many people. David, you’re on Bluesky too, right?

David Gilbert: I sure am. I’m even following you, Leah, finally.

Leah Feiger: I know. I had to beg for it. It was upsetting.

David Gilbert: I’m very busy though. I have lots of new followers to be vetting and checking.

Leah Feiger: To attend to.

David Gilbert: Yeah.

Leah Feiger: So rude. So what’s up? Do you guys like it more than X right now? There’s just been this massive exodus it feels like to me of not only journalists, but left leaning people across the board. What are the reasons why?

David Gilbert: For me at least it’s just less triggering. It’s less toxic. It’s just easier to be there for a while and scrolling and not be triggered by something stupid that someone has said, which is what X had turned into recently. And I think I’m happier just to spend time there. The engagement seems to be more natural, authentic. Just conversations happening rather than just people shouting all the time. And I don’t know, it’s very early days and I think it could potentially be really good, but it could also potentially be terrible because it’s the internet.

Leah Feiger: The CEO says that they’re gaining like a million users a day. That is a wild stat.

Vittoria Elliott: Yeah. I mean, so I agree with David, the user experience is just better. I mean, even though it’s a little slower in the load because they are gaining so many people so quickly, it is a platform that you feel is designed not to vacuum up all of your attention. So if you notice like with X, sometimes you’ll find a really interesting post and then the website will auto load and then it’ll push you back up to the top, so you have to keep scrolling. And Bluesky doesn’t function that way. It feels like old social media where you’re like, I’m here to see the things I want to see, but this isn’t designed in a way that makes me feel like the ultimate goal is just to make me lose as much time on this website as possible.