Threads wants the world to bring its yarns

A short while ago I became one of the 30 million people who signed on to Mark Zuckerberg’s newest toy, Threads.

Guess the very first thing I saw. (Answer at the bottom of this post.*)

For anyone who’s had their head under a rock the past few days, Threads is the new app launched by Meta (formerly Facebook). It’s directly linked to Instagram, the Meta  platform that counts more than two billion users. Threads is being rolled out in more than 100 countries but not apparently in the Europe Union because of a kerfuffle over the way Meta handles user data.

If you’re in a location that has Threads, you can sign on so long as you already have an Instagram account.

One of the strangest things is the awe and wonder that greets new platforms that people think might slay the giant (bird) and run the world one day. When I signed on, many Threaders said it felt clean and unsullied, pure even.

And I wrote some doggerel:

Hey Threaders

Bring the world your yarns

Braided, tied with a bow

Braided, bow-tied, or not

The cord of connection

Threads through our lives

It does feel friendly at the moment and Meta is consciously billing Threads as a “friendly” forum.

But despite all the chummy talk, Mr Zuckerberg wants to be the giant-killer, slaying the big bird. Consider his hopes for Threads: that the platform becomes “a public conversations app with 1 billion+ people on it.”

For now, Threads is pretty basic, lacking direct-messaging or livestream options, unlike Twitter,  and without offering advertisers the ability to sell on the convo stream.

That said, several heavy-hitters have Threaded their needle through the Meta newbie rightaway, not least Oprah Winfrey, J-Lo and New York congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

*(Answer: It was @zuckthreads.net with 1.2m followers.)