Twitter was the #1 information source during COVID times but it is now officially declared dead in a new preprint “The Failed Migration of Academic Twitter“.
Utilizing publicly available user account data, we track the posting activity of academics on Mastodon over a one year period. Our analyses reveal significant challenges sustaining user engagement on Mastodon due to its decentralized structure as well as competition from other platforms such as Bluesky and Threads. The movement lost momentum after an initial surge of en- thusiasm as most users did not maintain their activity levels, and those who did faced lower levels of engagement compared to Twitter.
While the paper isn’t particular well designed – I would expect some Sankey plots showing the activity movement like those found after elections – the main message is clear. The paper summary also reflects my own experience as I am writing now only occasionally at my blog while my Twitter, Mastodon and Bluesky accounts are left in an orphan state.