• by Cory Treffiletti , Featured Contributor, December 11, 2024

Yes, it’s a song title from Pink Floyd, but it is also a reminder that living in a silo is not good.

I’m referring to the increasing silos emerging because of the mass exodus from X (formerly Twitter) toward Blue Sky. I’m witnessing it across some email threads and news feeds I am part of.  Everyone who is upset and wants to leave the social network now dominated by right-wing conservative conversations is fleeing because, well, they would rather be caught up in left-wing liberal conversations that resonate with their current feelings.  My question is, do we really need to perpetuate another echo chamber?  Do we even need another social media channel?

This article is not about how you voted.  I don’t care how you voted.  This article is about the dangers of social media. If you think back in time to before social media, there was less divisiveness in society, and mental health issues were not so prevalent. The term “civil discourse” actually meant something.  If you were unhappy with politics, there were ways to get involved that didn’t require you to hate someone else because they had a different point of view.

I personally feel like simply tuning out of social media.  I don’t want to have such negativity hitting me in the nose every day. I can’t quit it completely because it does provide a connection to people who I wish I were closer to from various stages of my life, but it should no longer be a dominant format for where I get intellectual stimulation.

I don’t visit X.  I don’t post to X much at all.  I have no desire to sign up for Blue Sky, and even if I did, the business-related purposes for X are not present on Blue Sky.  Blue Sky doesn’t have the embedded connections and links from other publications that made sharing content on it so simple and fueled the original growth of Twitter.

Blue Sky requires work to engage in an echo chamber and I really don’t want to be in another echo chamber.  I just want to share pics of fun things happening with friends and family and get back to my day.

Blue Sky is getting a massive bump in registrations right now, but I fear this will simply further establish a deeper divide.  I think fewer silos and less focus on politics might be just what the country needs right now.  Maybe we just need less social media time and more face-to-face time.   Maybe seeing people in person will remind us that people are inherently similar.  We have the same needs and most of the same wants, and we just strive to be happy.  Life, liberty and the pursuit of all that, after all.

I don’t think we need another social network, and I hope that mainstream advertisers will realize they should not perpetuate partisan politics.  Many advertisers left X.  I don’t know if advertisers are flocking to Blue Sky.  Maybe that’s a good thing?  Maybe advertisers are going to focus their dollars and attention on the places where political conversations are fewer and far between.  Maybe that’s why CTV continues to thrive?  Maybe the ad dollars in 2025 can help drive a better approach toward media consumption, and not reward channels for gathering eyeballs via division.

Or maybe I’m an idealist and I just want everyone to be happy.  Is that really so bad, after all?