Horrible band name. Anyway, there are still discussions over whether Bluesky is an ‘echo chamber’*, but what most of those have missed is the quality of the Twitter/X experience. There are no metrics to assess how often a cnversation gets derailed by a troll. There are no metrics to indicate how many rightwing troll swarms have been unleashed on people. There are no metrics quantifying how many threats of rape or violence a user receives. In fairness, that sociopathic behavior is counted–as engagement. It makes Twitter/X seem more active, even as the user experience in any meaningful, qualitative sense goes to shit.

Start measuring the bad behavior, and you would have a very different view of so-called echo chambers.

*In yet another case of conservatives using language accurately describing them to attack their opponents, Twitter/X was called an echo chamber in a story on Oct. 31, before the ‘echo chamber’ concerns were raised about Bluesky.