One surefire means to go viral on Threads—the Meta-owned Instagram-spinoff social community with greater than 200 million users—is to ask a ridiculous query that enrages your followers a lot, they simply need to chime in to reply you, mock you, or berate you. When it first launched final summer season, Threads was seen as a blatant Twitter clone. On the time, that was an interesting attribute, as customers fleeing the chaos and toxicity of the platform now referred to as X had been on the lookout for a brand new place to assemble. Threads turned out to be a protected haven from the trolling and engagement bait on X, Reddit, and Fb, however just for some time. Threads, like all for-profit social media web site, was not capable of hold these jokers and dangerous actors at bay. In its effort to spice up engagement on the platform, Threads started prioritizing posts with probably the most replies and feedback—which additionally occur to be the posts that stirred up probably the most drama and pissed everybody off.
This week on Gadget Lab, we chat with Enterprise Insider senior correspondent Katie Notopoulos about her private experiment with rage bait immersion on Threads. We additionally ask whether or not social media websites are making the suitable choice by catering to their most livid customers.
Present Notes
Learn Katie’s story about ragebait on Threads. Learn Lauren’s story in regards to the new app SocialAI, the place the one human is you, and everybody else is a bot.
Suggestions
Katie recommends the truth present The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives on Hulu. Mike recommends the HBO present Industry. Lauren recommends the Apple TV+ present Slow Horses.
Katie Notopolous will be discovered on Threads @katienotopoulos. Lauren Goode is @LaurenGoode. Michael Calore is @snackfight@heads.social. Bling the primary hotline at @GadgetLab. The present is produced by Boone Ashworth (@booneashworth). Our theme music is by Solar Keys.
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