On the occasion of Threads' first birthday, I talked to @mosseri about growing the team, leaning into real-time conversation, and the challenges of the Fediverse. https://www.platformer.news/threads-175-million-users-adam-mosseri-interview/
@caseynewton @mosseri Good to hear him talk about the “need to get better at understanding your interests,” because right now, it’s atrocious. Casey, I would love to hear a discussion (perhaps on Hard Fork) about the fundamental nature (and flaws) of algorithm-driven engagement on social media platforms. They are all terrible, IMO. I’m not a TikTok user, although I hear that one is better. But even if it is, is being served a feed that is ultimately from accounts I don’t follow a good thing?
@Jasonact @caseynewton @mosseri If they show you posts from potential advertisers because you're subscribed to them, they loose out on advertising revenue. Enshittification.
@pies @caseynewton @mosseri Absolutely. But the more generous rationale (and one at least some users agree with) is that some of those advertisers and other users in the algorithm are serving content that you are actually interested in seeing when it works as intended. (To their credit, I'm often surprised by how well-targeted Instagram ads are for me, even if their other algorithm-driven content is a bad fit.)