social.noyu.me

Something Happened on twitter, and i entered the longest most productive and emotionally significant period of hyperfocus of my life, and channeled my anger and sadness into creative ends, and what came out was this blog post that's… very plausibly the longest thing i've ever written in one sitting, and somehow the most coherent and digestible. it's about what's happening to twitter. please read it. i poured my heart into it. https://hikari.noyu.me/blog/2024-10-02-the-algorithm-is-killing-twitter-and-its-driving-me-insane.html

@hikari I read this on my lunch break and to echo others, yeah, this resonates

I don't know the specific incident off the top of my head, but I've observed much the same as you with the decline of Twitter and wholeheartedly agree on what made it special in the first place, the community connections, of seeing the stuff the people you care about (friends, respected experts, cool strangers, etc) wanted to post about

Actually, you managed to get a few steps further ahead on the thought process than I'd gotten, connected a few more dots on the self-perpetuating death cycle and articulated it very well

I've been on Twitter 14 years, I transitioned (into an adult and of the genders, and many other changes) during that span and while I can't claim all or even most of my friends were made there, a fairly significant chunk were met there - and there still remains a handful that have yet to migrate anywhere else that remain the main reason I check Twitter (down to a few times a week, rather than many times a day)

The clash between those there for Content, those there for specific audiences (Mutuals or otherwise), the need to recognise that the hellsite is exploiting those cringe/outrage reflexes...I think it's far too late, even if many of us gain Awareness of the problem, it's too little, too late, especially when Twitter itself is self-sabotaging

And that sucks. The replacements, for all the effort and ideals, and in many cases better (albeit not perfect) design, cannot capture that same spark, and now many of us are scattered and either maintaining a half dozen social media presences more than before, or have to accept a certain degree of loss if unwilling to say, engage with Bluesky, or just lacking the energy to properly crosspost and cross-read everywhere

Thanks for writing this

(and I guess you're right, I should have some water...oh and actually remember to eat, as I checked social media and read this instead of eating on lunch break, oops)