Greetings all. I hope you’re well. Today (actually tonight at 11:43:36 pm) will mark the 16th birthday of being a Twitter user. My very first tweet is below:
I’ve seen the the evolution of Twitter since pretty much the very beginning, as the platform was just seven months old when I joined. Back then it was a veritable shell of what it is now – very quaint, innocent devoid of ads, the whole nine yards. It was not uncommon at all to see tweets about the most simplest (most would say mundane now) things such as what one had for breakfast, lunch, dinner, etc to running errands, and the like (way before cats took over the internet). It was a fun time, easy going, with no such things as bot accounts, 2FA, blue tick marks, Twitter spaces, political arguments, and the like.
I’ve always found Twitter to be very useful for what I need to get out the platform – specifically as a vast resource of information that keeps me learning about topics that interest me, primarily those in the tech world, and allow me to learn a great deal. There came a timeframe where I didn’t engage in Twitter as much but even when I came back, things changed very little.
Since the news of, and actual purchase of Twitter by Elon Musk, the platform, users, employees (those still left) and the news media have been in an uproar about the predicted fate of Twitter based on Elon’s recent actions. A good summary blog post (with linked articles) was recently written by Clay Lowe, another prolific blogger and Twitter friend of mine. You can find it here, it’s highly recommended.
Clay, myself, and many many other Twitter users have set up camp over at Mastodon, for various (and mostly obvious) reasons. The consensus across most of media is that Twitter will go up in flames, thanks to Elon’s continued activities. There are plenty of what I like to call “chicken little/doomsday” articles and tweets that predict Twitter’s demise. As for me, I’ll believe it when I see it. I don’t plan on leaving Twitter until I deem it to no longer be of use to me nor aligns with my desire for what I think the platform should be. I, like Clay mentioned, have requested a download of my entire account activity which is supposed to be ready for me within 24 ours of the request. As of this post, it’s been almost 48 hours and I’ve received zero notification of status. This is not the first time I requested it. There has been a mass exodus of Twitter employees over this past weekend, some of which belong to Twitter’s engineering team, so I suspect it’s possible it may be longer or I may never receive it – at this point, it is what it is.
As for Mastodon engagement, I learned of a crosspost feature called MOA that will auto-crosspost my tweets so that takes care of my engagement there. In any event, I’m still tweeting as nothing has occurred that will drive me away….at least for now.
Hmm, amongst all the craziness happening on the platform…..I wonder if I’ll still get a birthday card from them…LOL.
oceans of rhythm…
Fresh
I still haven’t received my archive yet either.
For Twitter site I’ve unfollowed or muted anyone that post about political news, I’ve blocked Elon, trump, kan(ye) and I have to admit, the feeling on the platform now is a beautiful thing.
Some may say I’m burying my head in the sand but I know what I want to and NOT want to engage in because I’ve been down that road and in the end it’s a time waster and gets me upset.
I haven’t requested my Archive at this time. Maybe I will or won’t. When it comes to these platforms now I’m trying to stay focus.
Another cool post Brother.
Thanks for the comment, brother. As for what others say about you burying your head in the sand – what they say really has no bearing at all regarding how you want to conduct your social media journey and engagement – it’s purely their opinion. Remember the keywords here: your social media journey and engagement. ‘Nuff said.