Bluesky, the microblogging alternative to X, is having a moment. A social media researcher explains why people are flocking to it – and why it isn’t likely to recapture the early days of Twitter.

What would you say at Twitter’s funeral?

That’s the question my collaborators and I asked over 1,000 people on social media as part of a broader research project on Twitter migration. Responses ranged from the profane to the poetic, but one common theme was that despite its significant flaws, Twitter at its best was truly great … until it wasn’t.