Not so quietly sad about Twitter
You have better things to do on your phone. You don’t use Twitter. But perhaps this post applies to you anyway and the social media of your choice. Read along and see if you’re feeling a growing distaste/frustration for what may waste your time.
Anyone else experiencing a growing distaste for Twitter?
Lack of customer support is atrocious. I quit paying for that reason.
Twitter is weird and hard to build a following on. I’ve been active and engaged for 17 years and have never broken 1000 followers. (I know, “whine some more...”)
Fewer friends are on it.
Spam accounts aren’t monitored. I had high hopes that at one point Elon was going to ban porn accounts, but that hasn’t happened.
Substack is more attractive and positive.
Grok - as much as Elon has pimped it - just isn’t as good/fast as other AI tools.
When Twitter killed third party apps/access to its service, that was the death knell of originality. Apps like Twitterific, Tweetbot, Tweetie and Tapbots to name a few.1
Finally… algorithms. Algorithms have killed the fun, randomness and joy of social media. Here’s a great article on how algorithms create echo chambers and “filter bubbles.”2
Here’s a few reasons why Twitter is still good:
Twitter is good when people are funny. It’s still the best source for snarky memes.
Twitter is a great source for news.
Twitter is good when people recommend quality accounts to follow.
Twitter is good when people give credit rather than steal content from users.
Twitter is good when users assume the best about others.
Free speech
But then there’s the free speech thing… Twitter may have helped save free speech. When Elon Musk bought the company, it had been in the throes of government-sponsored censorship. The Twitterfiles3 on COVID, the 2020 election and other revelations exposed an insidious network of collusion between alphabet agencies and social media, MSM, and academia designed to deplatform dissent. Musk insisted on free speech on the platform. It seems hard to believe that conservative voices were banned Twitter and Facebook. They were even de-banked. New social media apps like Gab and Parlor attempted to turn the tide. Even President Donald Trump was banned from social media. There’s no doubt that Musk’s purchase and throwing back the curtains with the Twitterfiles helped turn the tide of censorship in our culture.
Jeff, didn’t you leave Twitter for a while?
Yes. I was disheartened by the censorship around COVID and the 2020 election. I left in January 2021. See Goodbye, OSM.4 I was off Twitter for almost two years, and then Elon Musk bought it. See Hello, Twitter. I’m baaack.5 It was when I returned to Twitter that I discovered my original account @journeyguy had been given to a bot. I became @biblebeltman.
Despite repeated efforts with Twitter’s (nonexistent) customer service, I failed to get my original account back. You can still see many of my posts and replies by simply searching for “@journeyguy” on the site. I started tweeting back in 2008. I may have been the first Twitter account in southeast Arkansas.
But these days…
I find myself less enchanted by Twitter, for many of the reasons listed above. But another reason is simply that you’re not there. Friends and acquaintances simply aren’t on Twitter. Those that are, lurk. It’s rare for them to post or respond.
Twitter was great when it was “Twitter.” NEVER been a fan of “X” which is just stupid. When Elon named it X, it seemed that it began to take itself too seriously. Twitter was always fun when it felt upstart-ish, playful and scrappy.
What do you think?
Leave a comment below in response to any or all of these questions:
Why aren’t you on Twitter?
If you are but don’t post, why not?
What is your preferred social media to use? Why?
Where do you go for news?
So here I am, not so quietly sad about Twitter. I find myself on it less than ever. Has Twitter (or Bluesky, Threads, etc.) overpromised and underdelivered?
The third-party apps Twitter just killed made the site what it is today, by Mitchell Clark (The Verge, January 2023)
The Dangers of Filter Bubbles and Misinformation: How Algorithms Are Dividing Society, by Dag (Medium: September 2023)
Never heard of the Twitterfiles?! They just exposed coordinated conspiracies between the government and media! Consider catching up with what you missed:
#TwitterFiles: The Complete List, by Steve Murch (January 2023)
Twitterfiles.com - links to the five main Twitterfile threads
“I finally had enough. I was tired of seeing posts flagged by Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook for content that disagreed with their digital perspectives. Then after the Capitol Hill Incursion on January 6, 2021, it seemed that Big Tech went into purge overdrive… Some conservative accounts I followed on these platforms just disappeared overnight. Others saw mind-numbing losses of followers as these social media giants arbitrarily limited scope and reach. It was sad and felt like a heavy-handed approach and outright censorship.”
Goodbye OSM
I finally had enough. I was tired of seeing posts flagged by Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook for content that disagreed with their digital perspectives. Then after the Capitol Hill Incursion on Janu…
“I didn’t miss OSM. It freed up a lot of time and gave me new digital habits. It’s been an interesting journey… Within 24 hours of getting back on Twitter, I had scheduled two coffee visits with people locally that I don’t normally see in my routines. In two years of being on Gab, TruthSocial, and GETTR, that never happened… That’s proof of community and the real power of using “social” media well.”
