Facebook vs. Twitter–What is Elon Musk Buying? Bots?

In the social media world, it's standing on its end over the purchase of Twitter by Elon Musk.

Is Twitter worth it? Maybe

Consider the numbers, Twitter vs. the other two major social media platforms. NOTE:  we are not including Tik Tok because...well, you know. We're not into degrading ourselves or insulting your intelligence.

Facebook: 2.45 billion active users worldwide

Twitter:      145 million 'monetizable'  daily users

 Instagram:  despite being part of the Facebook 'family,'  there are almost 815 million persons who use the photo-sharing platform at least once or more a month.

One of the knocks on Twitter over the years has been the number of fake accounts, or 'bots.'   Bots are digital programs that can be used to control a social media account. 5 years ago it was estimated as many as 48 million of Twitter's accounts were bots. That number has dropped a bit, but it's still around 15 percent. Twitter has begun to put an icon or small print lettering identifying remote-controlled accounts as such.

 Facebook isn't without blame either, though

According to statista.com, Facebook took action or took down an estimated 1.7 billion fake accounts worldwide, that's out of their estimated 2.45 billion regular users.

Instagram is Instagram...not really used for news or information distribution purposes.

Who do you know who has a Twitter account?

Think for a bit...who do you know who has and uses a Twitter account on a regular basis? Do you have one?  It seems, and I have often said, the most we hear about Twitter is when someone posts something stupid on there and it gets reported by other media. It's not nearly as user-friendly as Facebook or Instagram, and that has many users shying away from it--especially older people.

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Statista reports as of 2021 the average age group range worldwide for Twitter ranges from 24-to 35 years old. The confusing myriad of hashtags and other emoticons is mind-numbing.  Plus with the limited characters, it's hard to share concise information.

The best use for Twitter is as a sharing platform to direct people to other online content. But it will be interesting to see what happens to it now with Musk at the controls.