Sports Fans’ Search For Community in Today’s Social Media Landscape

With more users leaving X behind, new competitors have arisen, but the craving for like-minded fans to connect with has never been stronger

The world of social media is constantly changing, ever evolving. But for so many years, there was an exception to this rule. Twitter was forever the place to convene to talk about sports. It was where the journalists that we read and the analysts that we watched spent their time on the internet. And it was the only social app that wasn’t trying to force all its users to become consumers of long and short form video.

This all started to change in late 2022 when Twitter was bought by Elon Musk and rebranded to X. Musk initiated a series of moves that led to many users to sour on the platform, creating an appetite for an alternative. This feeling has only strengthened in recent weeks as Musk has aligned himself with President-elect Donald Trump and has been awarded a cabinet position once Trump is inaugurated.

What has resulted is something of an exodus from X, and users have fled to other social media apps. The two that have gotten the most publicity have been Threads (owned by Meta) and Bluesky (pronounced Blue Sky). Both platforms have built themselves on being anti-Twitter in some way and have crafted communities where people talk about…