This is basically an admission, right? | Screenshot: Alex Cranz / The Verge
Instagram Threads launched last night, and it’s the most commercial competitor to Twitter we’ve seen yet. While it will eventually tie into ActivityPub, the powerful decentralized network that Mastodon operates on, it’s just its own thing for now. And as with every microblogging platform that has popped up since Twitter began to shit the bed last year, one outstanding question has immediately presented itself:
What do we call these things?
No one seems to know! A number of people have been drawn to the word “post,” and post is a very accurate term. Your parents have heard of this word, and you can say it in polite company without having to explain yourself. But it’s also the name of one of these services, and frankly, it’s boring. It’s…