Millions are rejecting the culture-war hotspots of the major social media sites in favour of apps dedicated to activities they enjoy, while bonding with their fellow users Singletons looking to shack up with their soulmates online have relied on two key routes in the past decade or so: take your chance on dating apps, or befriend as many mutuals as possible on social media, in the hope that you find the one. But some have found a third way, using services such as Goodreads and Strava to meet partners with whom they hope to spend the rest of their lives. Those couples proved to be trendsetters. So-called hobby apps – built around activites such as running, reading or movie-going – are having a moment, and not just for love. Continue reading...

There’s been an exodus of users from X, propelled by Elon Musk’s lurch to the far right, but the alternatives have drawbacks too “Being on @Threads this week has been a bit like sitting on a half-empty train early in the morning while it slowly starts to fill up with people jumping on with horror stories about how bad the service is on the other line,” posted the actor David Harewood on Meta’s Twitter/X rival, which from the volume of new joiners asking “Hey, how does this work?” appeared, in the UK at least, to be having a post far-right riots bounce last week. To which some might ask, what’s taken the Threads newbies so long? To say Elon Musk’s tenure as the owner of the social network formerly known as Twitter and now renamed X has been unconscionable – recent highlights include unbanning numerous far-right and extremist accounts and his one-man misinformation campaign about the UK’s far-right anti-immigrant riots – would be a criminal understatement. Continue reading...

It started poorly with a 45-minute delay and rolling technical issues – and was discussed on other platforms * US politics – live Elon Musk has been trying to entice Donald Trump back to X ever since he bought the site (formerly Twitter) in 2022. Until now, Trump has been content to rely on his own social network, Truth Social, to get the word out to his fans and followers, even after his one-time permanent Twitter/X ban was lifted. But as the US election nears, and Musk’s support of Trump becomes more vocal, Trump has returned, making a flurry of posts on X over the course of Monday and ending with a live conversation with Musk over a meandering three hours. Continue reading...