They say Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk want to get into a cage and have a fierce fight. The truth is, the battle has already begun, and it’s called Threads, the real threat to Twitter.
The folks at Meta have launched their own Twitter. Cleaner and prettier, according to early users. But when it comes down to it, it’s just like Twitter, except with a rather criminal algorithm (nothing it suggests will be to your liking).
So, with such app similarity, functionality, and interface… what do we call the messages we write and post on Threads? Because on Twitter, we already had the perfect word “tweet” and “to tweet”… can we use the same?
Let’s call Threads’ messages a tweet
We have pondered this question extensively, and our colleagues at The Verge have as well. We have come to the conclusion that we can refer to the messages on Meta’s social network the same way we have always referred to messages on Twitter: “tweet” and “to tweet.”
While many people have simply referred to the messages as “posts,” which is a fitting term, the reality is that it is too vague.
In the early hours of Threads’ public launch, people tried “threet” and “tit,” as well as a whole series of textile-related wordplay. But all of them seem like poor ideas.
For that reason, we advocate for the use of the word “tweet” and the action of “twitter.” It has a defined meaning in several dictionaries directly related to online posting. It is a word that immediately connotes the specific type of publication that microblogs tend towards.
“Tweet” is the perfect word to describe a short and quick message posted in a feed. And if you think “tweet” can only refer to Twitter, you’re mistaken. Twitter didn’t even invent the word.
As explained in The Verge, in the early days of Twitter, they were simply called “posts” or “updates.” Then, for a while, it was “twit.” By the way, be very careful if you install the app.
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