Lea Feiger: And in the studio with me is WIRED reporter Vittoria Elliott. Hello, Tori.
Vittoria Elliott: Hello, Lea.
Lea Feiger: Guys, how are you? What social media platforms are you on now?
Vittoria Elliott: A violent question if I’m honest. I totally agree with Bluesky.
Lea Feiger: Yeah?
Vittoria Elliott: Oh yes.
Lea Feiger: Well.
Vittoria Elliott: I’m just hanging out and people follow me. It’s the lowest lift of any platform I’ve had to participate in in a long time.
Lea Feiger: So you just like the attention?
Vittoria Elliott: I just like the attention. I love getting little pings on my phone every day that validate me.
Lea Feiger: It’s what Twitter used to be for so many people. David, you’re on Bluesky too, right?
David Gilbert: I sure am. I even follow you, Leah, finally.
Lea Feiger: I know. I had to beg for it. It was disturbing.
David Gilbert: Although I’m very busy. I have a lot of new followers to research and verify.
Lea Feiger: To attend.
David Gilbert: Yeah.
Lea Feiger: Very rude. So what’s up? Do you like it more than X right now? It seems to me that this mass exodus has occurred not only of journalists, but also of left-leaning people in all areas. What are the reasons why?
David Gilbert: For me at least it’s less triggering. It is less toxic. It’s easier to be there for a while and move around and not be provoked by something stupid someone said, which is what X had recently become. And I think I’m happier just spending time there. The commitment seems more natural, authentic. There’s just conversations instead of people yelling all the time. And I don’t know, it’s really early and I think it could be really good, but it could also be terrible because it’s the Internet.
Lea Feiger: The CEO says they are gaining like a million users a day. That’s a crazy statistic.
Vittoria Elliott: Yes. I mean, I agree with David that the user experience is just better. I mean, even though it’s a little slower to load because they’re gaining a lot of people so quickly, it’s a platform that feels like it’s designed to not take up all your attention. So if you notice like with And Bluesky doesn’t work that way. It feels like the old social media where you’re like, I’m here to see the things I want to see, but this isn’t designed in a way that makes me feel like the end goal is just to make me miss so much. possible time on this website.