The Awful State of Twitter

[pennswoods]

I have been back on Twitter during and since my travels in July and while I have been enjoying the Harris/Walz good vibes, I still see it as something I need to remove entirely from my life soon because it feeds some of my worst impulses. It is hard to step away permanently because of the history I have there. Just last week, I passed my 15 year anniversary. I still follow so many of my fan friends there that I met during my Sherlock days. And during the 7 years I was in Sweden, it was a major resource for my career and professional visibility. During peak COVID, it was a way to stay connected with the world and to gather information about the virus, vaccine availability and other things. I have a lot of photos and memories connected to that account. 

But I think I do need to walk away entirely. It is not what it once was and it has become something else.

The past few days, I have seen countless tweets posted by BlackTwitter and others critical of the anti-Harris position being promoted by (some) of the Free Palestine movement. There is a lot of anger and condemnation - so much so in such a short period of time that it feels very orchestrated. 

I believe now that anything that provokes such a strong emotional reaction on Twitter or other social media is a sign of manipulation. If I feel this way, I know that I am being manipulated. 

I don't care who is doing the manipulation, I don't like having my attention and emotional resources exploited.

Elon's interview with Trump has also riled up a lot of EU regulators and some of my EU friends. I think this is going to have ramifications for the whole platform too. 

I think it's time for me to close up shop soon. I just need to grieve a little first. 

 

Comments

[curiouscloud]

I miss twitter before it became x so much. My falling out started a bit after Elon’s purchase, it became too toxic. It used to be a place where I could find out the latest news but also have a laugh. Nothing was taken seriously. Now everyone is threatening each other and it feels like a war zone.

[pennswoods]

I feel the same. My use of Twitter now has gone from a productive work-related one to one for entertainment. But sometimes the entertainment is so toxic, I have to step away. I have a lot of memories wrapped up in it and that's part of the reason why I have held on for so long. I'm holing on to the past.

[ravenna_c_tan]

I am clinging on at Twitter but I'm spending wayyyyy less time there. Bluesky has replaced it as the place all the sf/f and queer ya writers in my circles are hanging out in. Bluesky feels a lot like twitter did in the early days, before it became the ubiquitous platform that anyone/any company in public life had to be on (which it no longer is), when serendipitous meetings could happen and funny memes could rise up from the aether. But what I miss most about twitter was that heyday of ubiquity, when you could reliably find breaking news and follow realtime reactions to real things (it's been fun to see some of the Olympics tweets, but then again, another thing JK Rowling could ruin...). Now there are just so many bots and bad actors trying to use it to foment real damage to society. Sigh.....! I keep hoping Elon will get bored or get booted out somehow and some people who really care about maintaining Twitter as a real resource for the good of humanity will return! Probably not going to happen, but I can hope...

[pennswoods]

I have a Bluesky account too but I don't visit it as much. The community is not as big, but I have to admit that I have not nurtured it the same way I should have. I think a lot of academics in my area are dispersed.

I too miss Twitter as a great news source. It is really not like that anymore!

[ravenna_c_tan]

Yeah. I do think we will see more people coming to Bluesky. There was a big influx this week (after the Musk/Trump "interview").