My thoughts on Twitter
“I can’t leave Twitter – all my followers are there.”
“I can’t leave Twitter – all the people I follow are there.”
It feels like the obvious first step is for the people with many followers to start posting all their content on multiple sites, so that the second point no longer applies.
The trickiest part is the lack of a fully agreed upon alternative. Do you go to Mastodon, instagram, threads, etc? While some folks might have an alternative that they view as a no brainer, it’s pretty clear that there isn’t overwhelming consensus. Mastodon seems perhaps the most popular as a direct Twitter alternative, but it regularly faces complaints about usability and discoverability. If people post to both Twitter and some random alternative, if that alternative varies wildly, followers will stay on Twitter cause it’s where all their favourites are.
It’s known as sunk cost and I understand it, I’ve been a victim of it myself.
For anyone (such as myself) whose use-case for Twitter is just for following specific people, if those influencers aren’t using Threads or Mastodon then there isn’t a competitor who can replace that service. I only use Twitter for a few select people and that’s it. I’m on Mastodon just posting into the void which is fun but doesn’t replace Twitter for me (yet)
This is one big reason I began to hate Reddit before the API bullshit. Reddit users would constantly bitch about Elon and Twitter, while linking to Twitter on every thread. How much further does Twitter need to fall, for people to stop using then as a default link? They don’t create content anyways, they’re just a link middle man, Twitter is essentially Pinterest
Twitter is definitely not just a link middle man, the main use for most is to follow people that use Twitter as their main way to talk/make annoucements about what they do. Be it politicians, artists, event organizers, teams, players etc.
For example where I regularly see links to Twitter is when people/organizations announce what they’re doing with eSports tournaments. They don’t announce that anywhere else. So if you want to be informed at all, you must have someone viewing their Twitter feed, either yourself or through someone else.
Yep, the centralizing of announcements is a bigger issue than link aggregation.
I work in pest control and want to follow several industry experts and guess what? They only use twitter to disseminate information because they’re mostly academic and don’t follow too much online drama.
I want to continue following them, but need to create a Twitter account to do so since Musk’s new ideas broke the website recently and you can no longer lurk without an account.
So I am torn between trying to follow experts and improve myself as a professional, or cut myself off from that source of information in order to try and reduce the amount of traffic that twitter gets.
I think much like invidious or piped, most people aren’t aware of nitter.net for sharing twits.
I see it a few different ways:
- They revere Elon Musk
- They are far right-winged
- They are watching it burn to the ground and are secretly grinning inside
- They actually believe its headed in the right direction
They can also be a combination of the above.
A friend of mine knows a few artists that are scrambling to find an alternative because Twitter has completely hamstrung them. They’d use the platform to promote their work and then people could contact them to make commissions.
That’s been pulled from under them.
Perhaps a dual presence on both Threads and Mastodon? Remember we’re on Lemmy, we wanna support using fediverse services when possible
The problem is obviously that they already had an established following and network of creators on that platform. They’d boost one another and so their followers would find other creators.
I personally won’t miss Twitter but I feel bad for the people who lose their livelihood because of lil Musk and his constant need to wave his wang in our faces.
Honestly, I only use my +18 account
I don’t know where the accounts I follow where be going when twitter dies.
“No shit, Sherlock” prize of today.
But for most that are still there, the reasoning is: “everyone I care enough to follow is still here”
People attract people and twitter still has a huge number of daily and monthly active users. It’ll take some time until it becomes the next facebook: still big but not as widely used in the west.
I agree with you. I think the toxicity of Twitter is damaging and radicalizing even more people that wouldn’t normally be exposed to the hateful garbage of the likes of /pol/
