Image via Wall Street Journal

By: Amaiya Mills, Staff Writer 

As platforms like Instagram, Twitter and TikTok seem to be the pinnacles of social media, it seems online interactions are turning a new corner. 

Twitter CEO Elon Musk sparked uproar among users on July 1 with his announcement of “temporary limits”. Musk provoked a wave of backlash with a series of posts that moderately increased the number of tweets users are allowed to read. Recently, the platform has experienced various issues among users which led to minimizing the reading count. 

“Verified accounts are limited to reading 6,000 posts/day, Unverified accounts to 600 posts/day, and New Verified accounts to 300 posts/day,” Musk said in his initial post.

“10,000 for verified, 1,000 for unverified, and 900 for new unverified,” Musk said referring to the finalized reading count.

Last week, Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO of Meta Platforms (the company behind Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp) launched the creation of a new app called Threads. Threads, developed by Instagram, achieved millions of downloads within just 24 hours of its release. It shares similarities with Twitter, as they are both text sharing apps that facilitate social connections among users. 

Users have the option to sync their Instagram profile to their Threads account. However, deleting your Threads account will also result in the deletion of your Instagram. 

Threads also allows users to post text discussions up to 500 characters long, as well as photos and videos ranging up to five minutes in length.

Since Threads launched, the app has generated a lot of buzz across social media platforms. 

College students say that Threads is already addictive and creates an online community.

“Threads is a really fun alternative to Twitter especially with it being connected to Instagram. It allows me to post more freely, being that I connected my threads account to my ‘finsta’,” said Kayla Edelin, student at Spelman College.

“Threads allows me to communicate more freer thoughts to other friends especially if they’re not on platforms like Twitter,” said Nick Session, student at Morehouse College.

Like Threads, there are other apps making their debut.

Another recently launched app, founded by entrepreneurs Alphonzo Terrell and DeVaris Brown, is called Spill. Spill provides a safe platform for communities of color and other marginalized groups to unapologetically express themselves through posts without concerns of hatred. 

Currently, the app is only accessible through invites, but those interested can join the waitlist. 

Despite users still engaging with Twitter, there is  growing potential of newly introduced apps like Threads and Spill. This raises concerns if Musk’s announcement will lead to the downfall of Twitter.

Copy Edited by: Auzzy Byrdsell, Editor in Chief