I think it’s spot on. It’s people who were already going through the stages of grief, were kinda stuck in “bargaining” (like: “nah, Twitter is not really dead, it’ll come back”), and the symbolism there about Twitter really being gone-gone fast-tracked them to depression/acceptance.
The stages of grief don’t have to go in that order. People can be angry at Twitter and then jump to acceptance that its never going back. No fast tracking needed.
I was actually aware of that, which is why I wrote depression/acceptance, meaning they probably moved from bargaining to either one of those, thinking either of those 2 stages could prompt people to leave. By fast-tracking, I meant that moved happened faster than they would have if the rebranding hadn’t happened. It’s still a fascinating bit, I have known about the stages of grief for a while, but only learned recently (like, this year) that they didn’t have to happen in order.
- Denial: “There is no way Elon would do that to Twitter.”
- Anger: “This is stupid. Why would Elon do this to Twitter? He’s making things so much worse!”
- Bargaining: “Maybe if I hold out he’ll revert the changes. Maybe Elon has some good left in his heart.”
- Depression: “Why do stupid things like this happen to me?”
- Acceptance: “Looks like Twitter’s dead in the water, we should move on.”
They finally started to read the room and noticed the furniture they liked wasn’t there and had been stolen. We’ve already figured out Musk’s antics and that he’s a deplorable human being. They’re finally starting to open their eyes and pay attention, especially now that he’s meddled with their toy.
