Bluesky Social Media - The Hottest Thing in Social Media Right Now
It's easy to understand why Bluesky is the hottest thing in social media right now. The app has only been around for about two months and is attracting tech types tired of Twitter's trolls and sexism, and who want a place to chat without worrying about their tweets getting censored. But this frothy honeymoon period won't last. The fact is that Bluesky is still a baby and a bit of a mess, and will only survive for as long as people keep logging on to it.
Bluesky is a barebones "microblogging" app that looks like old Twitter from the UI perspective and in many ways acts like it, too. Its timeline shows updates in chronological order, and users can reply to, repost, or quote posts they see. Bluesky also has a feature called "What's Hot" that shows trending content. But it lacks features found on other major social networks, including direct messaging and the ability to upload videos and GIFs.
The most important differences between Bluesky and the big platforms are that the latter are centralized, while Bluesky is decentralized. This means it's up to the community to make the app work, not just the creators. But it also puts the onus on users to moderate content, and — at least in the early days of the platform's life — that hasn't happened very well. Trolls have appeared in the first few days of the service, with bogus accounts impersonating celebrities and others, and the app has a lot of spam and low-stakes posts.
But it's worth noting that this problem is not Bluesky login unique to Bluesky and that centralized services run into similar problems with moderation at scale. It's just the reality of how things tend to work on social media, where a large group of users can quickly take over and ruin the experience for everyone else.
Bluesky's creators are doing their best to address this problem, putting more controls in place that allow for more granular approval of content. But it's not going to be possible to completely stop bad content from showing up on a new social network, and even the most vigilant of users can't block every account that goes rogue. That's why it's so critical for users to monitor the quality of their feeds and report any problematic or offensive posts, ideally before they're reposted and spread. Ultimately, it's up to each individual user to decide how much they're willing to risk to use the internet. And, if they really want to have a say in what kind of social media we all get to use, they need to take action now. By registering for Bluesky, they can help shape the future of online communities.