Per Shiffman and Wester, an “overwhelming majority” of respondents stated that Bluesky has a “vibrant and wholesome on-line science group,” whereas Twitter not does. And lots of Bluesky customers reported getting extra bang for his or her buck, so to talk, on Bluesky. They may have a decrease follower depend, however these followers are way more engaged: Somebody with 50,000 Twitter/X followers, for instance, may get 5 likes on a given put up; however on Bluesky, they might solely have 5,000 followers, however their posts will get 100 likes.
In response to Shiffman, Twitter at all times was within the high three when it comes to referral visitors for posts on Southern Fried Science. Then got here the “Muskification,” and all of a sudden Twitter referrals weren’t even cracking the highest 10. In contrast, in 2025 to this point, Bluesky has pushed “100 occasions as many web page views” to Southern Fried Science as Twitter. Paradoxically, “the weblog put up that’s gotten probably the most web page views from Twitter is the one about this paper,” stated Shiffman.
Ars social media supervisor Connor McInerney confirmed that Ars Technica has additionally seen a gradual dip in Twitter referral visitors to this point in 2025. Moreover, “I can say anecdotally that over the summer time we’ve seen our Bluesky visitors begin to surpass our Twitter visitors for the primary time,” McInerney stated, attributing the expansion to a mix of things. “We’ve been posting to the platform extra usually and our viewers there has grown considerably. By my estimate our viewers has grown by 63 % since January. The platform typically has grown quite a bit too—they’d 10 million customers in September of final 12 months, and this month the newest numbers point out they’re at 38 million customers. Conversely, our Twitter viewers has remained pretty static throughout the identical time frame.”
Bubble, Schmubble
As for scientists seeking to share scholarly papers on-line, Shiffman pulled the Altmetrics stats for his and Wester’s new paper. “It’s already one of many 10 most shared papers within the historical past of that journal on social media,” he stated, with 14 shares on Twitter/X vs over a thousand shares on Bluesky (as of 4 pm ET on August 20). “If the aim is displaying there’s a extra energetic educational scholarly dialog on Bluesky—I imply, rattling,” he stated.
“After I speak about fish on Bluesky, individuals ask me questions on fish. After I speak about fish on Twitter, individuals threaten to homicide my household as a result of we’re Jewish.”
David Shiffman
And whereas there was a gradual drumbeat of op-eds of late in sure legacy media shops accusing Bluesky of being trapped in its personal liberal bubble, Shiffman, for one, has few considerations about that. “I don’t care about this, as a result of I don’t use social media to argue with strangers about politics,” he wrote in his accompanying weblog put up. “I take advantage of social media to speak about fish. After I speak about fish on Bluesky, individuals ask me questions on fish. After I speak about fish on Twitter, individuals threaten to homicide my household as a result of we’re Jewish.” He in contrast the present incarnation of Twitter as no higher than 4Chan or TruthSocial when it comes to the proportion of “conspiracy-prone extremists” within the viewers. “Even if you wish to keep, the algorithm is working in opposition to you,” he wrote.
“There have been quite a lot of opinion items about why Bluesky is just not helpful as a result of the individuals there are typically comparatively left-leaning,” Shiffman instructed Ars. “I haven’t seen any of those self same individuals say that Twitter is unhealthy as a result of it’s comparatively right-leaning. Twitter is just not a consultant pattern of the general public both.” And given his give attention to ocean conservation and science-based, data-driven environmental advocacy, he’s prone to discover a extra engaged and persuadable viewers at Bluesky.
