Sort of. Maybe.
Two and bit years ago, I suggested that Twitter was on its way out.
So, is this the end for Twitter? To be honest, I’d been using it less and less over the past few years. But I’ll still miss it.
Maybe it’s for the best, given the direction it was clearly about to take. Of course, Musk doesn’t think so, but the replies to his tweet are exactly the reason that I’ll miss Twitter so much when it chooses (or I choose) to give up completely.
The fact is – as I actually hinted in that post – Twitter was only dying for some of us. If you happen to be a right-wing, anti-vax, Oompa Loompa fan, then Twitter is still very much the go-to destination to meet up with like-minded people. But for everyone else, despite its obvious uses, it’s becoming more and more untenable to keep using the site.
There are still many, many interesting, erudite, important, humorous and entertaining people on the app, and still plenty of useful information, from valid local and international sources, and it’s sad that those informal bonds and communities seem likely to die the death now.
The latest to leave – that I’m aware of, anyway: I’m sure that there are thousands of others – is The Stranglers, who posted this, this week:
Of course, the news that some “aging rockers” are leaving the app won’t break Elong Muskrat’s bank – especially with all the extra subsidies he’s now dragging in via his orange buddy – but they are the latest in a long line of people moving on, just like I did.
Surely then, there will come a tipping point, where the only people left on there will be rabid Nazis. We’re not too far away from that now, with them all happily and unironically paying $8 a month to the richest guy on the planet in return for “free speech” and protection from the consequences of their words.
But the further down the Trump route that he goes, the more Nazi salutes he gives, the greater his nasty wankery becomes, surely there will be a point at which there will be a mass exodus of the mainstream companies, personalities and sports teams from Twitter, because of his ownership.
We just really need a few brave (big) people to stick their heads up above the parapet and it could be so lovely watching the platform flounder.
I do think it’s coming.