Threads are no longer trending

Threads is no longer a comfortable place to share thoughts. Photo: Unsplash .

More than a year ago, Threads was a pioneer in creating new trends. From unique Gen Z slang words like “ni, banh”, the trend of recruiting staff, or posts that boast of income and pressure, but still share knowledge and experience to interested people, all flourished on this platform.

However, in recent times, the content on Threads has become chaotic, baseless, and no longer purely intended for sharing as it once was. The platform has become an arena for misleading, divisive posts simply to attract users' attention.

Do everything to attract attention

With 320 million users logging in at least once a month, Threads is like a public forum, but more civilized and controlled. The percentage of users aged 18-24 is over 20%, bringing youthfulness and the ability to create culture to the platform.

Meta once said it didn’t want Threads to be as newsy and scandalous as Elon Musk’s X. However, the social network has been flooded with posts in the form of silly, shocking questions, called “engagement bait” posts to attract fake interactions.

In an experiment by Business Insiders , posts that were deliberately designed to elicit responses were prioritized by the algorithm over those that were simply liked and shared. Those posts still received a lot of comments, even a week after they were posted.

Meta said it has adjusted its algorithm to prioritize posts from people it knows or follows, reducing the risk of spreading clickbait posts. “We’ve seen an increase in clickbait posts on Threads and are working to control it,” said Adam Mosseri, head of Instagram.

However, negative posts show no signs of abating. Recently, in the Vietnamese Threads market, a series of posts targeting the scandals of KOLs/KOCs have been shared publicly. Some people even proactively asked questions about KOLs and TikTokers with many scandals, and the online community continuously commented below.

A series of "exposé" posts received strong interactions. Photo: Threads.

These posts have a large number of interactions and show no signs of slowing down. Notably, the content of these posts is screenshotted and reposted on platforms with better viral potential such as Facebook.

A discussion on Reddit suggests that if you don’t filter your content carefully, you’re more likely to be recommended clickbait posts, often created by mass bots. Not just Threads, but the platform’s algorithms in general will somehow prioritize these posts, to attract attention to themselves.

Change in content format

When it first launched, Threads attracted users, mostly young people, because of its novelty and lack of noise like other social networks. "I find the content very healthy and humorous, but it seems like everyone is experimenting and no one really knows what they want to say here," a 21-year-old interviewed by Business Insider shared his experience.

A Threads post that received a lot of engagement was that the content on the platform was previously fun and friendly. The post was echoed by many who claimed to have been on the platform since its early days, and who said that, contrary to the past, Threads is now the most toxic social network.

According to a Zlab survey of Threads users who are Gen Z, the most common reason for deleting the app is because the content is not attractive enough (52%). The person who posted the above article said she did not dare to write anything here because she was afraid that people would come in to scrutinize, find mistakes, and share her post to gain interaction on other platforms.

Many accounts have used fake avatars to freely post shocking and sensational posts. Meanwhile, real users have less confidence in sharing their thoughts, becoming a group of users who mainly consume.

Users reminisce about the platform's early days. Photo: Threads.

Threads’ demographics are now shifting. According to data from Decision Lab, the number of millennial users has increased significantly compared to Q1 2024. This has also changed the nature of content on the platform to some extent.

Another reason users removed the app was the difficult-to-use interface and lack of interesting features (15%). Threads also added tools like sorting posts by topic, integrating a separate dialog instead of having to share via Instagram as before, but it seems to not be as effective as expected.

Despite being touted as the “new Twitter” with its minimalist interface and friendly atmosphere, Threads has increasingly lost its early role as a trendsetter. The platform is no longer a place to start new trends, but a place to record crowd reactions, becoming increasingly noisy and uncontrolled.

Source: https://znews.vn/threads-khong-con-tao-trend-post1574998.html