As of Friday afternoon, there were about 70 million users on Threads, an Instagram-adjacent app made by parent company Meta to capitalize on the failings of Twitter's current 2.0 iteration.

The usual suspects have also tried, and there are more than a handful of applications out right now, but the outcome isn't a surprise. Threads's current user numbers are 30 percent of Twitter's estimated daily active users. Instagram users must share the same handle and delete both accounts together if needed; not individually, and if the estimates of Instagram's two billion monthly active users is accurate, then it's a matter of time until Threads is flooded with mediocrity.

Despite being nothing like the first version(s), there's still an underlying ethos among some this site's most-loyal readers for seeking out fresh, obscure and unearthed takes and tales. But just like the original Digg lost a core pillar and transformed into a shell of itself overnight, or weeknights, other apps either fizzle out because they can't keep up — remember BeReal, Dispo, Clubhouse? — or simply can't compete with the institutional power accrued by the select few.

Threads will eventually become another link in your CV or Linktree and it will be used to replicate and duplicate one's brand repeatedly until hitting the block button becomes a part of muscle memory. At one point the internet was a playground where citing your screenshots carried weight, but it's now a house of very haphazardly reflecting mirrors.

[Image: Andy Allen]