David Shiffman is a marine biologist and conservationist who was an early power user of Twitter and trained more than 2,000 early-career scientists to use the platform for networking, sharing papers, and public communication. Elon Musk's 2022 purchase and renaming of Twitter to X, along with algorithm and moderation policy changes, led Shiffman to search for alternatives such as Threads, Post, Mastodon, and Bluesky. Shiffman joined Bluesky early and found features reminiscent of the platform's earlier strengths. Many other scientists reported similar frustrations, and news outlets documented rising complaints and migration. A scientific survey confirms widespread abandonment of Twitter and shifting preference toward Bluesky.
Marine biologist and conservationist David Shiffman was an early power user and evangelist for science engagement on the social media platform formerly known as Twitter. Over the years, he trained more than 2,000 early career scientists on how to best use the platform for professional goals: networking with colleagues, sharing new scientific papers, and communicating with interested members of the public.
But when Elon Musk bought Twitter in 2022, renaming it X, changes to both the platform's algorithm and moderation policy soured Shiffman on the social media site. He started looking for a viable alternative among the fledgling platforms that had begun to pop up: most notably Threads, Post, Mastodon, and Bluesky. He was among the first wave of scientists to join Bluesky and found that, even in its infancy, it had many of the features he had valued in "golden age" Twitter.
A curious Shiffman decided to conduct a scientific survey, announcing the results in a new paper published in the journal Integrative and Comparative Biology. The findings confirm that, while Twitter was once the platform of choice for a majority of science communicators, those same people have since abandoned it in droves. And of the alternatives available, Bluesky seems to be their new platform of c
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