A cocoon floating in the sky

To realize Bluesky's philosophy of Public Conversation (henceforth referred to as "p-Conv"), one paradoxically needs to embrace a state of solitude.

On social media, where one's existence can only be affirmed through writing, participants engage daily in a kind of mental conversation that could almost be called foolishly relentless.

The smallest unit of this mental conversation consists of fleeting "ideas," which are sporadically transformed into text and intermittently expressed on timelines.

This reality becomes inescapable when you observe Firesky. Countless posts from innumerable users flow ceaselessly, exceeding the limits of readability.

The endless stream of a feed seems to be a prerequisite for social media. This was evident when, last year, I proposed a "microfinance system" (charging a small fee for each post) to Uai (@why.bsky.team), and they responded, "That would reduce the number of posts." Similarly, an instance of ActivityPub I once observed had only about five active users and maintained its social media ambiance by having bots circulate news.

One phrase I particularly dislike is "polluting the timeline." This refers to the situation where someone posts in rapid succession, effectively monopolizing their followers' timelines. This often leads to the poster being muted or unfollowed—a localized "death" of an account.

I have long thought the concept of "following" should be transformed into something else. On the other hand, I believe the essence of social media lies in the richness of connections between nodes. It seems a waste to diminish the richness of the network through selective pruning, resulting in a scale-free structure. Yet the constant intrusion of unwanted thoughts from others can be extremely bothersome. There must be some way to fine-tune this ambivalence.

When we think about what p-Conv (remember, Bluesky’s guiding principle: Public Conversation) entails, if we see it as a visual "performance" of virtual sociality, the current Twitter-like interface reaches its limits. It is rooted in localized exchanges akin to primate grooming—small, synchronous interactions that require users to stay glued to their screens and continuously monitor posts in the feed. The effort to "recover" information missed while away from the screen is also a socially motivated act—a way to avoid being left out of the "steam" of conversation circulating within a group. This explains the persistent demand for features that pin unread posts to the top of the feed.

Given the current UI, one naturally questions how to best engage with the endless flow of posts. Jack Dorsey once said in an NHK interview that "Twitter is not a social network but a tool for discovering and discussing information." This was around 2017, when Twitter had already scaled significantly. At that time, Twitter had transformed from a platform for lighthearted communication (e.g., a post saying "Pooping now" might get likes) into a venue for asymmetrical consumption of information distributed along a long tail.

In contrast, with Bluesky, I feel an urge to resist merely following the path laid out by its gradual emergence from Twitter and adherence to its de facto standards. Bluesky currently floats in a nebulous space between community and media, leaving room for resistance.

If, over time, the network grows and influencers or experts become super-hubs with consumers clustered around them, resulting in an asymmetrical network structure, Bluesky may become indistinguishable from Twitter. While this may be an unfounded worry, the number of users has already grown exponentially compared to last year. Every time something happens "there" (on X), a celebration breaks out "here" (on Bluesky), and Jay and Paul become particularly talkative.

Bluesky’s greatest strengths are its straightforward chronological timeline and customizable feeds. The development team’s bold decision this year to make the Following feed interchangeable with other feeds, removing its privileged and fixed position, was a game changer.

This allows us to achieve what Twitter’s UI could not: a "cocoon" that balances immersion in introspection and self-autonomy with negotiation between community and the broader network.

The "cocoon" refers to the practice of consolidating one’s introspective posts (internal dialogues) into a single thread per day. These internal dialogues are grouped into daily threads, while posts intended for media outreach (PR or amplification) are made separately. This clear distinction between introspection and PR enables meaningful interaction with others, allowing them to engage in p-Conv (Public Conversation) on any dimension. Those who find the recurring appearance of such "cocoons" distracting can choose to hide them, while those interested can engage with them.

By creating a feed that lists only the top posts of these cocoons, even the author can trace the flow of their thoughts over the day. Furthermore, if many people adopt this posting style and its accompanying feeds, these "cocoons" can be "subscribed to" as units of thought flows with defined beginnings and endings, enabling immersive engagement with others’ thought processes.

On Bluesky, as manifested in the ATmosphere, one can engage in the "traditional practice" of casting one’s voice into a visually constructed illusion of a bustling crowd, where the boundaries between self and others blur. At the same time, participants can craft their own cocoons, leaving behind evidence of their presence. Those who later stumble upon these cocoons can unravel them, overlaying their own perspectives onto the landscapes the cocoon’s creator once saw.