Whelp, I’m not going to lie to you: I’m pissed. I spent a good part of last night devoting much too much headspace to Twitter. And tonight — well — tonight, it’s gotten worse. And, like I said, I’m pissed. Mostly at myself, though.
See, I’m mad that I trusted someone who’s proven over and over that he cannot be trusted. I took him at his word. And, even though I disagree with him more often than not, I was giving him the benefit of the doubt that he would practice what he preached. But the truth is that it doesn’t matter. Twitter is his now, and he can do whatever he wants with it. We’re just going to have to live with the consequences.
I don’t know that I have any larger point to make here tonight. I just wanted to leave myself this reminder: Twitter is gone; stop expecting anything different. I think that may be a good reminder for others, as well. It’s definitely a shocking wake-up call for the reporters who were trying their best to use the service while they reported on the service. But we all need to rethink our information diets without Twitter in it. And that’s hard to even wrap my head around.
Sure, I get push notifications and listen to far too many podcasts. But there was something special about getting news from Twitter. I’ve been trying to figure out why those other sources aren’t doing it for me, and I think I finally figured it out this week: Those other apps have their own editors-in-chief, deciding which stories to cover and how. But with Twitter, I played that role. I could keep up with headlines, whether local or global, but I could also dig much deeper on niche topics, like why a Pavement B-side is so popular on Spotify.
The more I talk about “the glory days of Twitter,” the more I start feeling like that star athlete in high school who just can’t resist reliving his glory days, no matter how many years ago they were. But make no mistake, the changes at Twitter will have some pretty big consequences on how, who, and where our news comes from. We found ways to stay informed before Twitter. And we’ll figure out a way without it. But this liminal period, where voices are amplified and suppressed based on the whims of a fragile, probably increasingly unstable, narcissistic megalomaniac, should have us questioning why we allow this much power to be held in such questionable hands.
Hands All Over
15 December 2022
Suspenseful.
Whelp, I’m not going to lie to you: I’m pissed. I spent a good part of last night devoting much too much headspace to Twitter. And tonight — well — tonight, it’s gotten worse. And, like I said, I’m pissed. Mostly at myself, though.
See, I’m mad that I trusted someone who’s proven over and over that he cannot be trusted. I took him at his word. And, even though I disagree with him more often than not, I was giving him the benefit of the doubt that he would practice what he preached. But the truth is that it doesn’t matter. Twitter is his now, and he can do whatever he wants with it. We’re just going to have to live with the consequences.
I don’t know that I have any larger point to make here tonight. I just wanted to leave myself this reminder: Twitter is gone; stop expecting anything different. I think that may be a good reminder for others, as well. It’s definitely a shocking wake-up call for the reporters who were trying their best to use the service while they reported on the service. But we all need to rethink our information diets without Twitter in it. And that’s hard to even wrap my head around.
Sure, I get push notifications and listen to far too many podcasts. But there was something special about getting news from Twitter. I’ve been trying to figure out why those other sources aren’t doing it for me, and I think I finally figured it out this week: Those other apps have their own editors-in-chief, deciding which stories to cover and how. But with Twitter, I played that role. I could keep up with headlines, whether local or global, but I could also dig much deeper on niche topics, like why a Pavement B-side is so popular on Spotify.
The more I talk about “the glory days of Twitter,” the more I start feeling like that star athlete in high school who just can’t resist reliving his glory days, no matter how many years ago they were. But make no mistake, the changes at Twitter will have some pretty big consequences on how, who, and where our news comes from. We found ways to stay informed before Twitter. And we’ll figure out a way without it. But this liminal period, where voices are amplified and suppressed based on the whims of a fragile, probably increasingly unstable, narcissistic megalomaniac, should have us questioning why we allow this much power to be held in such questionable hands.
See you tomorrow?