A new study suggests that scientists are leaving X (formerly known as Twitter) in significant numbers due to its declining professional value. Many now find Bluesky to be a more effective platform for networking, outreach, and staying updated on research.

Scientists no Longer Find Twitter Professionally Useful, and have Switched to Bluesky

Synopsis Social media has become widely used by the scientific community for a variety of professional uses, including networking and public outreach. For the past decade, Twitter has been a primary home of scientists on social media. In recent years, new leadership at Twitter has made substantive changes that have resulted in increases in the prevalence of pseudoscience, conspiracy theory, and harassment on the platform, causing many scientists to seek alternatives. Bluesky has been suggested as a good alternative to Twitter, but the phenomenon of academics switching social media platforms has not previously been studied. Here we report on the results of a survey distributed to scientists on Twitter and Bluesky (n = 813). Results overwhelmingly confirm that changes to Twitter have made the social media platform no longer professionally useful or pleasant, and that many scientists have abandoned it in favor of Bluesky. Results show that for every reported professional benefit that scientists once gained from Twitter, scientists can now gain that benefit more effectively on Bluesky than on Twitter.

Scientists no Longer Find Twitter Professionally Useful, and have Switched to Bluesky

Synopsis. Social media has become widely used by the scientific community for a variety of professional uses, including networking and public outreach. For

Scientists no Longer Find Twitter Professionally Useful, and have Switched to Bluesky

Synopsis. Social media has become widely used by the scientific community for a variety of professional uses, including networking and public outreach. For

A quick and dirty guide to making custom feeds on Bluesky

So, you’ve made it! The remnants of science twitter have at last begun to coalesce around a new microblogging platformed owned by questionable individuals with inadequate content moderation t…

How Bluesky, Alternative to X and Facebook, Is Handling Explosive Growth (Published 2024)

The fledgling social media site has been flooded with new users since the election. It hasn’t all been easy.

How to use Bluesky, the Twitter-like social app taking on Elon Musk's X | TechCrunch

Bluesky is continuing to blow up. The Twitter-like service and alternative to Elon Musk's X, has now surpassed 16 million users after seeing rapid growth

How to use Bluesky: A beginner's guide to the most popular X alternative

Bluesky is one of several social networks offering an alternative to the platform formerly known as Twitter. Here's how to join and use it.

What is Bluesky? Everything to know about the X competitor.

Bluesky is the latest app users are flocking to in an effort to replace X. We answer all your questions about the social network.

Bluesky Won't Save Us

Like radiation, social media is invisible scientific effluence that leaves us both more knowledgeable and more ignorant of the causes of our own afflictions than ever

How Bluesky, Alternative to X and Facebook, Is Handling Explosive Growth

<blockquote><br /><strong><em>The fledgling social media site has been flooded with new users since the election. It hasn’t all been easy.</em></strong></b...

[Guide] - Bluesky to Twitter/X migration

For those who have decided to leave Twitter/X for Bluesky, or, like me, have joined both platforms, one of the first challenges is replicating your follows. If you have a significant number of accounts you’re following, manually searching for and re-following them on Bluesky can be a tedious and time-consuming process. Earlier today, I decided to dig into whether there are any tools or methods to make this transition easier. After exploring several options, I came across a particularly

Bluesky is what Tumblr was

Over the past several months I have watched carefully as leftists have migrated over to Bluesky from X/twitter.

The Astrosky Ecosystem: An independent online platform for science communication and social networking

While almost everything that astronomers study occurs in the vacuum of space, astronomy itself does not `happen in a vacuum'. Interactions between scientists, as well as outreach to members of the public, improve extensively from access to good communication tools. Social media has become a key tool for communication in astronomy, being widely used by individuals and organizations alike for networking, outreach, and more. However, traditional social media is reliant on benevolent corporations providing a free service without compromising on quality, and the recent takeover and decline of Twitter has shown how vulnerable these platforms can be. In this proceeding, we present The Astrosky Ecosystem, which is an initiative to develop open-source tools and integrations for social media, principally the Bluesky social network. We explain how our project enables the astronomy community to operate its own social media infrastructure, independent of for-profit corporations. We also discuss some of the project's technical aspects, including its use of the AT Protocol for social networking, before concluding with ideas for the future.

Bluesky And X Users Plummet Year After Trump’s Election Win—Truth Social Makes Small Gains

Bluesky, a liberal-leaning social platform that welcomed hordes of users disillusioned by Elon Musk’s X, hasn’t sustained its surge in activity after President Donald Trump won a second term.

My top Bluesky feature requests for 2024

In 2023 my social media consumption changed dramatically after I DM'd a random mufo on what-was-then-called Twitter for a Bluesky invite. At the time, I was floating between Twitter itself and Mastodon for my primary daily social media experience. On one hand, I loathed Twitter (and