Worthy post: A look at trends in text-based sharing

A year ago, we launched Threads with the belief that everyone has something valuable to say. We want to create a place where people feel comfortable sharing their thoughts and ideas.

To dig deeper into how people use Threads—and social media in general—we partnered with Wakefield Research to survey nearly 2,000 Gen Z, Millennial, Gen X, and Boomer respondents in the U.S. about their social media preferences.

The survey indicates that Threads can be a place for positivity, with many respondents with a Threads profile agreeing that the app is a breath of fresh air compared to the negativity of the rest of the internet.¹ Let’s dive into the rest of the findings.

¹ Wakefield survey of nearly 2,000 respondents

Community for you and me

For most respondents (60%), connecting with others is the most important part of social networking², and many people on Threads believe the app helps build strong communities and foster friendly conversations.

Thread Tags, one of the first community features released, gives people the ability to tag a topic in a Threads post and allows for better discovery and engagement with the posts they care about. Since the feature’s introduction, more than 50 million tags have been created to help communities unite.³ Five of the top and most popular tags from the past three months are:⁴

• Photography thread
• Fire Threads
• GymThreads
• Art Threads
• TTPD

² Wakefield survey of nearly 2,000 respondents

³ Data Internal Threads

⁴ Internal Threads data from March 17 – June 14, 2024

Social is for entertainment news

Generation Z also has a clear goal to connect to social media. 67 percent report checking their feed for entertainment-related news. Gen Z also report that they will check their feed for music-related news (60 percent), food-related news (59 percent), and fashion-related news (42 percent).⁵ With features like topic tags and US trending topics. , which presents relevant topics within search and on the “for you” feed, Threads has quickly become a place to discover this kind of news.

⁵ Wakefield survey of nearly 2,000 respondents

It’s a love story: Taylor Swift x Threads

There is a growing and engaged community of Swifites on Threads. TTPD, a tag that helps identify conversations about Taylor Swift’s latest album, The Tortured Poets Department, is one of the top five tags for the past three months.⁶ “Swifties” and “Taylor Swift” are also popular, ranking -se in the top 20. Tags from the past three months.⁷ With Gen Z checking their feeds for moments like a new album drop (43 percent) or music tour announcement (31 percent),⁸ Threads is the perfect place to find Swiftie fandom content.

⁶ Internal Threads data from March 17 – June 14, 2024

⁷ Internal Threads data from March 17 – June 14, 2024

⁸ Wakefield survey of nearly 2,000 respondents

Text is king

People come to Threads to share their thoughts and ideas about their interests using text: More than half (63 percent) of all Threads posts are text-only.⁹ More text-only Trends have taken off, such as using the app as a personal goal. journal and other suggestions that the Threads community participated in, such as Trending Cities, Trending Five Jobs, and more.

But with all that typing comes the question of good grammar: is it necessary on social media? 73 percent of Americans surveyed believe it is always necessary to post in appropriate caps, but more than 1 in 3 Gen Zs (36 percent) throw punctuation out the window and post in lowercase. In fact, a quarter of Gen Z (25%) feel that punctuation is rarely or never necessary.¹⁰

⁹ Internal Threads data

¹⁰ Wakefield survey of nearly 2,000 respondents

Imagine this

Threads is primarily used for text-based creation, but many people supplement their posts with images. Photos are one of the app’s most used features, with one in four Threads posts including at least one.¹¹ With the introduction of an in-app camera and the growing Photothreads community, photos have become a popular way to enhance text—the first posts.

While 67 percent of Americans surveyed are more likely to use their phone’s camera to take a photo for social media, use of a social media app’s native camera is on the rise: both Gen Z (47 percent) and the millennial generation (42 percent). gravitate towards using social media apps to take photos they intend to share.

¹¹ Internal thread data

OMG I actually LOLed

You can never be sure if someone laughed out loud at your post, but 77 percent of Americans surveyed know when they do.¹² Most commonly, 38 percent of people use an emoji reaction when they laugh out loud at a message or post on social media, including 44% of Gen Zers.¹³

While more than 42% of Americans think the laughing on the floor emoji (🤣) does the best job of expressing that something is extremely funny, 1 in 5 Gen Zers think the laughing out loud emoji (😭 ) is the best reaction.¹⁴ With both of these emojis in the top five most used on Threads,¹⁵ there’s a chance you’ll find your new favorite internet comedian on the app. Other popular emoji include the black heart (🖤), sparkle (✨), and heart eyes (😍).

¹² Wakefield survey of nearly 2,000 respondents

¹³ Wakefield survey of nearly 2,000 respondents

¹⁴ Wakefield survey of nearly 2,000 respondents

¹⁵ Data from internal threads

Too long to type, I’ll send you a voice note

Whether you “heart” vocal notes or have never heard of them may depend on your generation. Both Gen Z (65%) and Millennials (63%) have questioned love voice notes, while nearly half of Gen Xers and 70% of Boomers don’t know what they are.¹⁶

Does he live in the south? You might like voice notes a little more: Almost 70% of Gen Zers living in this region say they like voice notes, more than those in the Northeast (59%).¹⁷.

Threads introduced voice memos shortly after its initial release, and they became a popular feature for celebrities like Cardi B and Serena Williams, who used them to answer fan questions during AMAs they hosted on the app.

¹⁶ Wakefield survey of nearly 2,000 respondents

¹⁷ Wakefield survey of nearly 2,000 respondents

I’m a content creator too!

Almost half of the Gen Z social media users surveyed (48 percent) and more than half (58 percent) of the Millennial social media users surveyed consider themselves content creators or influencers in some way.¹⁸ For those involved in content creation, 15 percent of both generations see it as a side hustle, but for 10 percent, it’s a component of their actual career.¹⁹

Threads gave creators a new space to start growing their platforms as influencers. In fact, there are emerging creators who never considered themselves—or dreamed of becoming—influential until they established their voice on Threads.

¹⁸ Wakefield survey of nearly 2,000 respondents

¹⁹ Wakefield survey of nearly 2,000 respondents

Threading the needle

Each social media app has its own rhythm, language and cultural norms. The way people post and interact with others, join communities, and even use emojis are all determined by the environment the app promotes.

We’re proud of the work we’ve done to make Threads the best place for public, text-based sharing. As we look forward to the next year of Threads, we’re excited to make the app even better for following and discussing your interests in real time, and we’re investing in more features that make people feel most comfortable -share their thoughts and ideas about the app – because everyone has something interesting and valuable to say.