The 2022 Net-Split, and Its Consequences
Posted: Mon Nov 10, 2025 3:10 am
It's the start of my weekend again, and that's good news for me, because I can get back to scrounging for loot in ARC Raiders. Albeit, I do find myself yearning for a second vacation only a week after the last has ended. I like to relax, who knew! But, before I dive into Gamer World, I feel like I want to write something, because if I don't write, I don't feel like I've done anything for myself and my own ambitions in solo "work." And, I think this post is going to be more about social media, due to the fact that it's the main reason I use the internet in 2025, and there's something that's been troubling me since the pandemic and the sale of Twitter.
Back in 2022, when Elon Musk orchestrated a hostile takeover of Twitter, people ran. And from that point onward, and even today, the app continues to bleed real people, as they're replaced by bots controlled by algorithms in order to make the app seem more alive than it is. Despite this, corporations and game-dev studios remain, for ... uh, reasons I'm not too sure of. And, now that it's 2025, there are for sure generation-alpha teenagers who look back on 2022 as if it was three decades ago, mustering up nostalgia for an app that was also bad before Apartheid Boy bought it.
But, good or bad, I was there (and in some capacity, I have some accounts that remain, which are mainly just auto-posting content from the places I'm actually active). I had somewhat of a sense of community. I had over three thousand followers, and when I spoke, it didn't seem like I was talking into an empty void (hello, Bluesky, the place where, unless you've already got an in-group, you may as well be a ghost). It didn't seem like I was writing a public journal that most people don't care about.
I think it's plain to see, though, that this buyout quite literally caused a net-split. A splintering of the Internet as we knew it circa 2010 to 2022. A lot of people had and are already on the Fediverse (known as Mastodon to the average person who calls a Playstation 5 a Nintendo), but then Bluesky was erected, and, because it mirrors old-Twitter so closely, that's where a lot of Twitter diehards fled, despite its continued enshitification over the past year (see: Jay Busky's crash-out, an upcoming system that'll put platform manipulation in the hands of random people, among many other things, such as being owned by crypto-dudes).
What would a discussion on the net-split be, though, if we didn't mention the fallen heroes who tried to replace Twitter before a billionaire bought it in order to pretend he has friends?
Pressing F in the chat for:
Ello, an app that was launched in 2014, which had a really unique interface that I actually kind of enjoyed. But, it failed to gain real steam, was eventually switched to some kind of artist, patreon hybrid ... thing, and then shutdown in 2023. I feel like these people just launched way too early, and had they waited ... five years, it'd still be alive and well, today.
Hive Social, which was gaining popularity, until a security exploit took it down. The devs attempted to recover while the app sort of slipped out of the memory of the general public, and are currently relaunching with testing under a brand new beta version.
I was a member of the original Hive Social, and am also a member of the beta test.
Uhm ... I think that's it, actually? I know years back I remember seeing someone hopeful about launching a Twitter-clone, but then they posted a test screenshot showing one of the first users, who was a high-profile TERF (trans exclusionary radical feminist). So, that died before there was even any water for it to be dead in (I wish I could remember the name of this, but it basically died as a concept minutes after he shared the aforementioned screenshot).
Suffice to say, a lot has happened since 2022, and now we have three major Twitter contenders. There is, of course, as previously mentioned, the Fediverse, Bluesky, and also Meta's Threads.
I find it hard to count Threads, though, because the platform is almost just entirely grifters and influencers trying to get the most engagement possible in hopes of securing an imaginary paycheck from Zuck, by copying and pasting statuses from forty seven thousand other accounts. It's pretty bad, and is exactly the reason engagement should not be monetized. But, don't tell that to billionaires who want to inflate their egos with shallow user counts and a lack of context for the reasons as to why those users exist.
On a personal level though, and to the reason I wanted to write this post, it's been rough? Being a musician whose been making music since 2017, an independent author who's been writing since 2008, a web developer / regular developer whose been doing all sorts of things for the past couple years, and a creator in the virtual world, Second Life, whose been going at it since 2014 ... interest groups for all of these things are spread out among all of these apps. Although, it would be rude or egregious of me not to mention the fact that the Fediverse has been a major source of album sales since 2017.
The network with no algorithms and only real human engagement, is, logically and unsurprisingly, the place where I see the most support for what I do.
But, even then, there are mutuals from Twitter of whom I haven't seen in years now (I mentioned earlier maintaining accounts on Twitter, which are mainly old accounts I never used that I am now using in order to direct anybody who might have known me in the past to the places where I actually am, because I deleted the big account I once had). People who moved to Bluesky who I've either never found, or did find, but they changed almost completely as a person. And let's not forget, my first experiences on Bluesky, which were worse than what you would experience as a new user on 4chan confused about how things work. And then, let's not also forget, if you're a person who does things, like music, art, etc, etc, follower counts are ... actually kind of important. The average person who logs on to post and participate in a little banter every now and then, they won't see the importance of these things. Some of them will and do actively rally against it.
I guess what I'm trying to say is, the social internet in 2025 is amazing, but it also sucks. I don't like being split between a million different apps, trying to rally together support for what I do that mirrors or even exceeds what I once had. I don't like feeling like a ghost. I don't like this manic pressure I feel in my brain that has me running around different networks, different protocols, different Fediverse software.
And yet, it continues, going 'round and 'round in a circle.
I wish there was as solution.
Source: https://mkultra.monster/social-media/20 ... -netsplit/
Back in 2022, when Elon Musk orchestrated a hostile takeover of Twitter, people ran. And from that point onward, and even today, the app continues to bleed real people, as they're replaced by bots controlled by algorithms in order to make the app seem more alive than it is. Despite this, corporations and game-dev studios remain, for ... uh, reasons I'm not too sure of. And, now that it's 2025, there are for sure generation-alpha teenagers who look back on 2022 as if it was three decades ago, mustering up nostalgia for an app that was also bad before Apartheid Boy bought it.
But, good or bad, I was there (and in some capacity, I have some accounts that remain, which are mainly just auto-posting content from the places I'm actually active). I had somewhat of a sense of community. I had over three thousand followers, and when I spoke, it didn't seem like I was talking into an empty void (hello, Bluesky, the place where, unless you've already got an in-group, you may as well be a ghost). It didn't seem like I was writing a public journal that most people don't care about.
I think it's plain to see, though, that this buyout quite literally caused a net-split. A splintering of the Internet as we knew it circa 2010 to 2022. A lot of people had and are already on the Fediverse (known as Mastodon to the average person who calls a Playstation 5 a Nintendo), but then Bluesky was erected, and, because it mirrors old-Twitter so closely, that's where a lot of Twitter diehards fled, despite its continued enshitification over the past year (see: Jay Busky's crash-out, an upcoming system that'll put platform manipulation in the hands of random people, among many other things, such as being owned by crypto-dudes).
What would a discussion on the net-split be, though, if we didn't mention the fallen heroes who tried to replace Twitter before a billionaire bought it in order to pretend he has friends?
Pressing F in the chat for:
Ello, an app that was launched in 2014, which had a really unique interface that I actually kind of enjoyed. But, it failed to gain real steam, was eventually switched to some kind of artist, patreon hybrid ... thing, and then shutdown in 2023. I feel like these people just launched way too early, and had they waited ... five years, it'd still be alive and well, today.
Hive Social, which was gaining popularity, until a security exploit took it down. The devs attempted to recover while the app sort of slipped out of the memory of the general public, and are currently relaunching with testing under a brand new beta version.
I was a member of the original Hive Social, and am also a member of the beta test.
Uhm ... I think that's it, actually? I know years back I remember seeing someone hopeful about launching a Twitter-clone, but then they posted a test screenshot showing one of the first users, who was a high-profile TERF (trans exclusionary radical feminist). So, that died before there was even any water for it to be dead in (I wish I could remember the name of this, but it basically died as a concept minutes after he shared the aforementioned screenshot).
Suffice to say, a lot has happened since 2022, and now we have three major Twitter contenders. There is, of course, as previously mentioned, the Fediverse, Bluesky, and also Meta's Threads.
I find it hard to count Threads, though, because the platform is almost just entirely grifters and influencers trying to get the most engagement possible in hopes of securing an imaginary paycheck from Zuck, by copying and pasting statuses from forty seven thousand other accounts. It's pretty bad, and is exactly the reason engagement should not be monetized. But, don't tell that to billionaires who want to inflate their egos with shallow user counts and a lack of context for the reasons as to why those users exist.
On a personal level though, and to the reason I wanted to write this post, it's been rough? Being a musician whose been making music since 2017, an independent author who's been writing since 2008, a web developer / regular developer whose been doing all sorts of things for the past couple years, and a creator in the virtual world, Second Life, whose been going at it since 2014 ... interest groups for all of these things are spread out among all of these apps. Although, it would be rude or egregious of me not to mention the fact that the Fediverse has been a major source of album sales since 2017.
The network with no algorithms and only real human engagement, is, logically and unsurprisingly, the place where I see the most support for what I do.
But, even then, there are mutuals from Twitter of whom I haven't seen in years now (I mentioned earlier maintaining accounts on Twitter, which are mainly old accounts I never used that I am now using in order to direct anybody who might have known me in the past to the places where I actually am, because I deleted the big account I once had). People who moved to Bluesky who I've either never found, or did find, but they changed almost completely as a person. And let's not forget, my first experiences on Bluesky, which were worse than what you would experience as a new user on 4chan confused about how things work. And then, let's not also forget, if you're a person who does things, like music, art, etc, etc, follower counts are ... actually kind of important. The average person who logs on to post and participate in a little banter every now and then, they won't see the importance of these things. Some of them will and do actively rally against it.
I guess what I'm trying to say is, the social internet in 2025 is amazing, but it also sucks. I don't like being split between a million different apps, trying to rally together support for what I do that mirrors or even exceeds what I once had. I don't like feeling like a ghost. I don't like this manic pressure I feel in my brain that has me running around different networks, different protocols, different Fediverse software.
And yet, it continues, going 'round and 'round in a circle.
I wish there was as solution.
Source: https://mkultra.monster/social-media/20 ... -netsplit/