I start tonight frustrated. Not because today saw the end of a great underdog story at the World Cup. No, it’s about the tedious and capricious changes Twitter implemented just because its owner can’t handle the public scrutiny the platform he now owns thrives on. So, he’s made another snap-judgment change. One which benefits only him. Without regard to the broader implications of its rushed implementation.
I don’t know why I’m surprised. At this point, these kinds of seemingly arbitrary decisions have become de rigueur. Yet, here I sit, mouth agape, staring into a screen, reading about how ham-fistedly this has been rolled out. I don’t want to dwell on this too long, because I already hate how much mental space Twitter continues to occupy in my mind, but as I read about the new location-sharing policy, and its enforcement, I thought about a blog post I wrote ages ago the day of the Boston Marathon bombing.
There’s an idea in that collection of words and reactions that is as naïve as it is novel when we look back on it today. But using eyewitness Tweets has been the bread and butter on countless news stories over the years, even if we didn’t know what we were reading about at the time.
Making real-time, location-based information a potential violation of the new Twitter policies is going to hamper the first-drafting of history we’ve come to rely on from the service. But, like I said, this should no longer be a surprise. I’m just having a hard time coming to grips with the idea that Twitter isn’t what Twitter was. Yes, I’m not Tweeting any more. And, yes, I’m using it very infrequently. But when a news story breaks, I still search the desktop site for news. And I get immediately reminded of how much we’ve lost, not the least of which was the amazing work the Curation team did to put Tweets into context so we could quickly understand what we knew about a story, and why we knew it.
I will miss Twitter for a long, long time. Even if I find another service which meets my news needs. But until then, the loss is just so pronounced. Nothing lasts forever, obviously, but I wasn’t ready for Twitter to be taken from me. Not like this.
He Didn’t
14 December 2022
Wherror?.
I start tonight frustrated. Not because today saw the end of a great underdog story at the World Cup. No, it’s about the tedious and capricious changes Twitter implemented just because its owner can’t handle the public scrutiny the platform he now owns thrives on. So, he’s made another snap-judgment change. One which benefits only him. Without regard to the broader implications of its rushed implementation.
I don’t know why I’m surprised. At this point, these kinds of seemingly arbitrary decisions have become de rigueur. Yet, here I sit, mouth agape, staring into a screen, reading about how ham-fistedly this has been rolled out. I don’t want to dwell on this too long, because I already hate how much mental space Twitter continues to occupy in my mind, but as I read about the new location-sharing policy, and its enforcement, I thought about a blog post I wrote ages ago the day of the Boston Marathon bombing.
There’s an idea in that collection of words and reactions that is as naïve as it is novel when we look back on it today. But using eyewitness Tweets has been the bread and butter on countless news stories over the years, even if we didn’t know what we were reading about at the time.
Making real-time, location-based information a potential violation of the new Twitter policies is going to hamper the first-drafting of history we’ve come to rely on from the service. But, like I said, this should no longer be a surprise. I’m just having a hard time coming to grips with the idea that Twitter isn’t what Twitter was. Yes, I’m not Tweeting any more. And, yes, I’m using it very infrequently. But when a news story breaks, I still search the desktop site for news. And I get immediately reminded of how much we’ve lost, not the least of which was the amazing work the Curation team did to put Tweets into context so we could quickly understand what we knew about a story, and why we knew it.
I will miss Twitter for a long, long time. Even if I find another service which meets my news needs. But until then, the loss is just so pronounced. Nothing lasts forever, obviously, but I wasn’t ready for Twitter to be taken from me. Not like this.
See you tomorrow?