A Eulogy for Twitter

 All this stuff going on with Twitter has really got me thinking of social media - of how I use it, how it works, and so on.

I guess, first... the real strength of a social media site is it's network. Facebook, for example, has it's issues. And I probably would have left it years ago if it wasn't the only place where I can stay in touch with a rather farflung group of friends and family. 

Where else can I get updates on my old grade school friends? Ones I hadn't seen in years, since we moved away when I started high school? Where else can I learn what's going on with various aunts, uncles, cousins, step-brothers and step-sisters? (Not so much the immediate family, since I generally call them and talk to them directly.)

Leaving Facebook means leaving my only connection to these people, since it's practically impossible to convince all of them to jump ship at the same time. (Though as that post on the thermocline shows, if things get bad enough on that site it IS possible. It's just that it'd have to get pretty bad first.)

So social networks strength comes from it's members. The more people on the network, the more people you can connect with, the more powerful it is. Which translates into possible strength in other ways, since you now have a large potential audience for anything on that site... 

And each network fills a role. Facebook for friends and family. LinkedIn for work and business (some may use it on a regular basis, but I mostly just have an account there so that when I'm job hunting any of the HR people doing their due diligence can see that yes, I do have a presence. And it lists the same jobs I have in my resume... For the most part I don't actually care for or want to socialize on there. Though, again, I do have some contacts there - former colleagues and coworkers - that I don't have elsewhere.)

Tumblr is pretty much for fandom. I only got an account there because I followed my friend - who was in a number of fandoms - to that site. I only later realized that I'd been following her through most of the fandom migrations, since she also was the one that got me on LiveJournal. And migrated to Tumblr as part of the fandom movement. (She died last year, and I miss her. 😢)

I'm not sure if Discord should be listed as a social media site. I mean, it is? But it's more like the tech equivalent of salons... you generally have to get an invite to join a discord server, so it's more isolated and less public. Started as a way for gamers to talk while playing together, but obviously used for a lot more than that now. 

Anyways. Twitter. 

I started on Twitter mostly for infosec. I mean, I seem to have fallen into DevOps and I'm not sure if or when I'll ever change over, but I find the topic interesting and I really like the community. They're knowledgeable about a wide range of things. 

And given my interests, I suppose it's no surprise that once I started using it regularly I also started following various other topics of interest. Politics, of course. History. News. Random accounts for everything from the history of Khorasan to geology and cool looking rocks. Also was good for diversifying my feed, and getting the perspectives of all sorts of people.

In so doing, I found that Twitter filled a much different role than my other accounts. If Facebook is for friends and family, and LinkedIn for professional contacts, Twitter was very much like a free-for-all. You could engage complete strangers on almost any topic imaginable. 

I've heard people talk about it as the town square, or the equivalent of the water cooler at work. That fits very well, except that the town square is a public place and Twitter is a private company. (This is probably part of the problem that led to the current situation.)

I discovered that I often heard the news on Twitter first, though you have to be careful since initial takes are often wrong. There's also a lot of bots, and misinformation, so generally you have to confirm anything you hear there elsewhere.

Now that it seems to be dying (which I'm not sure is true, since everyone said the same about Tumblr and Tumblr is still there in all it's wacky glory... but then again, Elon Musk seems to have lost quite a bit of money and is talking about Twitter going bankrupt, so maybe it really will) I've had to consider where and how I'll find anything that will give me the same experience. Maybe Mastodon... maybe not. We'll see.

It's crazy how poorly Elon Musk seems to understand the business. Like - I'm not going to pay $8 for a blue check mark no matter how much you want me to. 

I might pay $8 for an ad-free tier, like some applications do, but really if he ever insists people pay for an account it'll be the death knell. Or rather, you might have some people paying to be on it - like Patreon, I assume - but that will also limit the size of the network, because a lot of other people won't. 

I suppose it's a bit like toll roads vs regular highways. Anyone and everyone can get on a public road, so they get a lot of use. Toll roads limit who uses them to who is willing to pay. 

If you want a business like a toll road, that's fine... you won't get everyone, but you can probably still make a profit out of it? Maybe? 

It won't be Twitter, though. Or rather, it won't have the characteristics that made Twitter the powerhouse it was, or possibly could still be.

It has been darkly amusing to see what a madhouse it's become at the moment. The fake accounts using their paid for blue check marks have been a riot... though I never expected it to have a real impact on stock prices. (Surely that's only temporary?)

I'm not sure what the future holds, or whether I'll find anything that fills that role...

I think I'll miss it. 

I kind of wish I had a billion dollars myself, so I could invest in building my own version. It seems there are a lot of former Twitter employees looking for a job, so it ought to be easy to find people with experience.

Alas, I am not in a position to do such a thing. Perhaps someone else is, and will.