After 9 years, roughly 5 of which I wasn’t supposed to have the platform anyway (I created an account at 13 even though I wasn’t supposed to), I think it’s time to start winding down the Twitter account. I don’t know why I felt compelled to write a mini-essay, but here we are.
Ever since Elon Musk took over in 2022, the site has been plagued with issue after issue. From the general instability of the site, to the shrinking of the user base (despite the leadership of Musk and “CEO” Linda Yaccarino saying otherwise), to the verification scandal (which has its OWN Wikipedia page with a laundry list of References), to the owner’s own antisemitic and otherwise hateful views.
This is only scratching the surface. When Musk finally closed the acquisition and took Twitter private, I’d hoped he’d just be the owner and hire somebody actually qualified to build out his vision. Someone who could push back on the bad ideas. (And just to be clear, not all of his ideas for the site were bad! It was a very low percentage of them, but still.)
The truth is, the site’s bleeding money and users who don’t want to buy what he’s selling. Advertisers don’t want to pay Elon anymore, which apparently his solution for is to sue and say it should be illegal (causing the GARM organization to collapse).
I won’t get into the details on how exactly I feel about this particular thing, but now that he’s likely* going to become a US government official (*pending confirmation from the Senate), and holds several government contracts, I don’t know if he’s going to get appointed at all. If he does, I doubt he’s going to have time to manage the platform as it does not appear Yaccarino is even allowed to do much. That’s where I’m leaving this section, though.
Look, I met my closest friends on Twitter (one of whom is building “Chirp,” which is a brilliant little project.) While I have other ways of reaching them all, thank God, I’m still sad to be losing a platform I have to thank for bringing them into my life in the first place. Bittersweet is probably a better term for it.
So where do we go from here? Well, a lot of Twitter users have moved over to Bluesky. (Which, funnily enough, was funded by Twitter and its former CEO Jack Dorsey prior to Musk’s acquisition.) Some are on Threads, Mastodon, or other places on the fediverse. Some are here on Tumblr, too. Or all of the above even!
Honestly, this has made me really appreciate the vibe of the “old internet” even more. This new era feels more like a modern day Myspace / Early 2010s Twitter hybrid. I love it.
So, I encourage you to consider any of the alternatives and start moving away, too. It’s not a “it’ll happen overnight” thing, of course, it’ll take time… but these other, more healthier places absolutely deserve your support in order to be viable! Stay positive, folks.
After all, bluer skies are ahead! (Sorry.)