And the ridiculous part on top of that is that it was the exact opposite situation at first. When it first launched, you had to be a friend of a friend of a Google employee to register or you weren't getting in. It took me a about a month before a friend of mine studying CompSci at university with the kid of some Google employee was able to pass an invitation my way.

I get the purpose was to generate hype by making it seem "exclusive" like Facebook was in the early days, but it took way too long before the people who genuinely wanted to use it were allowed to openly register for it. It was like that for 3 months, and a lot of people who gave up on trying to get an invite lost interest after the initial buzz died down.

And then Google wasn't satisfied with upsetting the people that wanted to use it, so they had to go and upset the people who didn't want to use it by later forcing it on everyone with a Google account.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

It's kind of funny, isn't this exactly what Meta is doing to everyone with an Instagram account? You have a shadow profile on Threads regardless if you signed up or not.

I wonder why the reaction is so different, maybe because they both are social media? Or maybe just good timing with the whole Twitter debaucle.

[–] Stovetop 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I think there is still concern. When Threads launched, the media was full of articles outlining commonly-stated concerns about privacy and the involuntary connection between Instagram and Threads.

The problem is that zoomers who are flocking to it in droves don't seem to care about any of that. And I don't think it's due to ignorance, but probably more like generational defeatism.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Yes, there has for shure been a shift in the culture. Privacy doesn't seem to be that big of a concern for most.

I'm not so sure it's just the zoomers that are to blame, plenty of older people don't seem to care either. But I do feel for the younger generation, having never known the freedom and joys of the pre-corporate internet. Then again, maybe ignorance is bliss after all.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago

Yea I was annoyed that they were making me sign up for google+ for my youtube account so I never tried it I just set it up so I could keep using youtube.