This all rang true, sadly. Everyone is scattering all over the place & my sense is the turd & the Saudis & other investors did this to destroy what was an incredible engine for communication & democracy & news & that the 44b loss was a price they were happy to pay.
I kinda just walked away from X like a car on the side of the road with the keys left on the tire.
It wasn’t because of ideological reasons because it’s always easy to find one of those wherever you go.
It wasn’t because of changes to the platform, because honestly it’s been sucking for longer than the current phase--probably six or seven years.
I left because it bored me.
It was like one day I woke up and I was like, eh, this is lame. This posting for popularity thing, and weeding through ads, and fighting algorithms to find stuff I want, it’s all kinda pathetic.
So I just kinda left it frozen as it was. Instead, I started putting my random thoughts into my journals. And that lead to writing more on Substack. And it’s...pleasant.
I feel human again.
Now I use X solely to post links to my Substack, which just endlessly entertaining and childishly devious.
You've inspired me to finally pull the trigger on deleting my tweets, and at the same time your points about keeping the handle active are good ones. Thanks for sharing—I'm sad about Twitter too :(
Using Notes more has helped. I’m also trying to remember to stop thinking in terms of how I can condense it for Twitter. That was the best/worst part for me, switching away from the “Is it Tweetable?” mindset. Now I write something longer or file it away as an unresolved idea.
I've been writing about the same thing. The hardest thing for me is the DMs - so many wonderful side conversations there, over the years. If I leave, it will be like throwing out sentimental letters (which maybe I should also do, honestly). It infuriates me that these toxic billionaires have such a personal impact on our lives and I'd love to resist in an activist way, but I kind of hate it there now. TweetDelete may be the best first step, sadly.
I mainly used Twitter to follow some political posters (most of whom fled to Substack, so yay, I can keep up), and a few local (Midwest/Chicago) reporters and a couple of b list celebrities (2 who followed me back and I had some great interaction with). I miss those people.
I tweeted from time to time, but there's not much to delete in that regard. If anything, it made me realize that I'm burnt the fuck out on social media. IG and FB have become so IN YOUR FACE ADS ALL THE TIME, they have become all but unusable.
I once went to a job interview for a digital editing job at my region's newsweekly; I'd previously been a staffer there during other ownership groups and wound up among the two finalists for the job. Didn't realize, not exactly, that a huge portion of the gig was Tweeting out the paper's content; guess I thought it be more along the lines of web-only content creation. D'oh. Wish I had a photo of my face as my editor said during our final interview: "you realize that your Twitter bio's nothing more than the phrase 'I Hate Twitter'?" Well, gosh, no, I didn't realize that! And I didn't get the job (though I still regularly freelance for the paper). // Good luck in your divorce from the app. I can't imagine ever finding joy or professional use there.
Hi I left Twitter not long after Musk took over. I was an early user, not sure of the exact date but in 2007. I have saved my tweets. I would appreciate an invite to Bluesky. Thanks. My email is enike79@yahoo . CO . UK
I started on Twitter to connect with writers. I got my first short story published through Twitter. Then, it got political and I connected with like-minded folks. Then it turned nasty and I fought the good fight. But when EM took over, I was done. I conceded and, with much sorrow, I closed my account. I miss many of my Twitter pals, but now I may have to do the delete too. A sad end to a once lovely platform.
Oof. I've kept my Twitter in a holding pattern of nothingness for years now. I'll tweet something every few months, if I have something to promote. Deleting all the tweets makes me so sad to think about. But maybe also I don't care anymore. Thanks for bringing this up (as well as mostly ignoring Twitter, I've also been ignoring news about Twitter, so I missed this AI-training news). Part of me wants to sift through my tweets for all my good jokes. (A very small part of me.)
Sari, if you have an extra invite I would appreciate it. I read your take on the man and his ego and am thankful for folks who see he and his platform for what they are. Arrogance knows no boundaries. Thanks for all you do. Cline.laura@outlook.com
So sorry to hear that I think I saw it on Instagram not surev. I don't guess Twitter much don't care much for Soon Musk or Donald Trump! Good luck. Jackie
I deleted all my Twitter history last fall before I launched my campaign for local politics. It was likely unnecessary for a municipal politician but I had a super experienced campaign manager friend who convinced me safe is better than sorry cause who knows what someone may find from my decade of Twitter use. It was a hard day but I got over it. Thanks for this post as I hasn’t paid attention to this change. I’m going to make my account private now too.
It's so sad, I've just shy of 30K followers on Twitter and I'm lucky if one person sees my tweets these days. I miss the hey day of Twitter when it was all about mutual support and building community. I'm new to Substack and hoping to find that here x
This all rang true, sadly. Everyone is scattering all over the place & my sense is the turd & the Saudis & other investors did this to destroy what was an incredible engine for communication & democracy & news & that the 44b loss was a price they were happy to pay.
I kinda just walked away from X like a car on the side of the road with the keys left on the tire.
It wasn’t because of ideological reasons because it’s always easy to find one of those wherever you go.
It wasn’t because of changes to the platform, because honestly it’s been sucking for longer than the current phase--probably six or seven years.
I left because it bored me.
It was like one day I woke up and I was like, eh, this is lame. This posting for popularity thing, and weeding through ads, and fighting algorithms to find stuff I want, it’s all kinda pathetic.
So I just kinda left it frozen as it was. Instead, I started putting my random thoughts into my journals. And that lead to writing more on Substack. And it’s...pleasant.
I feel human again.
Now I use X solely to post links to my Substack, which just endlessly entertaining and childishly devious.
You've inspired me to finally pull the trigger on deleting my tweets, and at the same time your points about keeping the handle active are good ones. Thanks for sharing—I'm sad about Twitter too :(
Using Notes more has helped. I’m also trying to remember to stop thinking in terms of how I can condense it for Twitter. That was the best/worst part for me, switching away from the “Is it Tweetable?” mindset. Now I write something longer or file it away as an unresolved idea.
I've been writing about the same thing. The hardest thing for me is the DMs - so many wonderful side conversations there, over the years. If I leave, it will be like throwing out sentimental letters (which maybe I should also do, honestly). It infuriates me that these toxic billionaires have such a personal impact on our lives and I'd love to resist in an activist way, but I kind of hate it there now. TweetDelete may be the best first step, sadly.
I mainly used Twitter to follow some political posters (most of whom fled to Substack, so yay, I can keep up), and a few local (Midwest/Chicago) reporters and a couple of b list celebrities (2 who followed me back and I had some great interaction with). I miss those people.
I tweeted from time to time, but there's not much to delete in that regard. If anything, it made me realize that I'm burnt the fuck out on social media. IG and FB have become so IN YOUR FACE ADS ALL THE TIME, they have become all but unusable.
Informative. I loved original Twitter also and did not know enough about what’s ahead. I appreciate your related post.
I once went to a job interview for a digital editing job at my region's newsweekly; I'd previously been a staffer there during other ownership groups and wound up among the two finalists for the job. Didn't realize, not exactly, that a huge portion of the gig was Tweeting out the paper's content; guess I thought it be more along the lines of web-only content creation. D'oh. Wish I had a photo of my face as my editor said during our final interview: "you realize that your Twitter bio's nothing more than the phrase 'I Hate Twitter'?" Well, gosh, no, I didn't realize that! And I didn't get the job (though I still regularly freelance for the paper). // Good luck in your divorce from the app. I can't imagine ever finding joy or professional use there.
Hi I left Twitter not long after Musk took over. I was an early user, not sure of the exact date but in 2007. I have saved my tweets. I would appreciate an invite to Bluesky. Thanks. My email is enike79@yahoo . CO . UK
I started on Twitter to connect with writers. I got my first short story published through Twitter. Then, it got political and I connected with like-minded folks. Then it turned nasty and I fought the good fight. But when EM took over, I was done. I conceded and, with much sorrow, I closed my account. I miss many of my Twitter pals, but now I may have to do the delete too. A sad end to a once lovely platform.
Oof. I've kept my Twitter in a holding pattern of nothingness for years now. I'll tweet something every few months, if I have something to promote. Deleting all the tweets makes me so sad to think about. But maybe also I don't care anymore. Thanks for bringing this up (as well as mostly ignoring Twitter, I've also been ignoring news about Twitter, so I missed this AI-training news). Part of me wants to sift through my tweets for all my good jokes. (A very small part of me.)
Sari, if you have an extra invite I would appreciate it. I read your take on the man and his ego and am thankful for folks who see he and his platform for what they are. Arrogance knows no boundaries. Thanks for all you do. Cline.laura@outlook.com
So sorry to hear that I think I saw it on Instagram not surev. I don't guess Twitter much don't care much for Soon Musk or Donald Trump! Good luck. Jackie
Some folks are over on Threads, but if you have any Bluesky invites left, I’d like to take you up on your offer (marissa.hereso at gmail.com)
I deleted all my Twitter history last fall before I launched my campaign for local politics. It was likely unnecessary for a municipal politician but I had a super experienced campaign manager friend who convinced me safe is better than sorry cause who knows what someone may find from my decade of Twitter use. It was a hard day but I got over it. Thanks for this post as I hasn’t paid attention to this change. I’m going to make my account private now too.
It's so sad, I've just shy of 30K followers on Twitter and I'm lucky if one person sees my tweets these days. I miss the hey day of Twitter when it was all about mutual support and building community. I'm new to Substack and hoping to find that here x