The downfall of Twitter/the rise of X

[MirrorMask]

Someone posed as Tobey Maguire (with the verified badge) and announced Spiderman 4.

I'm starting to think this might turn out to be a bad idea 

[XJDenton]

In somewhat unrelated news, tumblr is about to get a lot more popular.

I mean, they just unbanned nudes, so I can see a certain segment returning.

[ErHaO]

I just hope there will be less worshipping of Musk after this. The man obviously has done some great business moves and knows his stuff on certain subjects, not going to deny that, but he has also started so many dumb projects that went absolutely nowhere and never will. You don't need to be a genius to see why many of his decisions in regards to twitter were not the brightest.

[MirrorMask]

I just hope there will be less worshipping of Musk after this. The man obviously has done some great business moves and knows his stuff on certain subjects, not going to deny that, but he has also started so many dumb projects that went absolutely nowhere and never will. You don't need to be a genius to see why many of his decisions in regards to twitter were not the brightest.

Something that I was pointing out in a political topic as well.

Famous people, and people in power, are human too, and they're subjected too to making mistakes.

There's no need to explain with conspiracy theories, wonders about what the masterplan might be, long rationalizations etc etc something that can be explained with good old human stupidity. Selective stupidity of course, even a smart man or a cunning politician can, and will, royally screw up and do something stupid, without being him/herself stupid.

[ReaperKK]

Everytime I see Elon in the news I'm always reminded by this brilliant Onion article: https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.theonion.com/please-like-me-1848674003/amp

[DragonAttack]

Everytime I see Elon in the news I'm always reminded by this brilliant Onion article: https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.theonion.com/please-like-me-1848674003/amp

He sent a stonk to the moon?

'Honestly, I don’t get why anyone wouldn’t like me. I do cool stuff. I make cars. People like cars, don’t they? I make stonks go to the moon. Isn’t that cool? Isn’t making stonks go to the moon something people like? Seriously, c’mon.'

TAC will appreciate this reference https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GwfFFM-d6wk   

And going back to the 'I WANT MY EIGHT DOLLARS!'  Damn inflation

[TAC]

I get the reference but I can’t say I appreciate it. 

[XJDenton]

There's no need to explain with conspiracy theories, wonders about what the masterplan might be, long rationalizations etc etc something that can be explained with good old human stupidity. Selective stupidity of course, even a smart man or a cunning politician can, and will, royally screw up and do something stupid, without being him/herself stupid.

Hanlon's Razor.

[hefdaddy42]

What a doofus

[Stadler]

While it's true you can mute/block/ignore your way through Twitter to have a better experience, that doesn't change the fact the place itself has turned into something bad though. That's like if your kid is being bullied at school and you say "Just close your eyes and put your fingers in your ears and the bad things will go away" It's unfortunate that it brings out the worst in many people. I would be all for a Twitter where you're stuck with your real name so there's some consequences to what you write, but I know that doesn't stop people from being jackasses on Facebook so it probably wouldn't fix much unfortunately. Maybe better moderation would help?

I don't think it would because the ones in charge love see their agendas pushed, even if presented in a trolling manner.

I lost track at how many stupid things I have seen trending over the years where when you click on the subject, barely anyone is talking about, so it shouldn't be trending, but they obviously have measures in place (that are far above my head) to push certain issues, narratives, etc.  As terrible as the news media is at stirring up trouble with social justice matters for example, social media is now just as bad thanks to stuff like this, and arguably far more dangerous now since the average person likely spends a lot more time now on social media than they do watching and/or reading the news media.  And I suspect it will be just as bad with Musk in charge, just with a different agenda in place.

60 Minutes did a story last night that touched on some of this; I didn't get to watch all of it, because my trivia game started, but it's what I've been saying all along. There ISN'T an upside to Twitter, et al, because the motivations don't match.  Twitter isn't trying to spread information, it's not trying to improve democracy, it's not trying to do ANY of these so-called upsides. They are all just happy accidents if and when they happen at all.  Twitter's motivation, and the behaviors it seeks to promote, are about reinforcing the reward system it has built in, with the sole benefit of revenue.  They did a study: they picked a certain number of news events, and they tracked the number of times the ACTUAL NEWS was forwarded or retweeted, and they tracked the number of times selected opinions ABOUT the news (reactions) were forwarded or retweeted.  The latter was forward or retweeted orders of magnitude more, and the rewards - the "likes" - were orders of magnitude higher as well.

https://www.cbsnews.com/60-minutes/full-episodes/

Spoiler alert: they use the terms "in-groups" and "out-groups".  It was like watching porn for me!

[ProfessorPeart]

I never had to block before the idiot bought it. I literally had no idea how to. I have probably blocked hundreds of accounts already. One of the first thing I was greeted with in my feed after the purchase was a dude cliff diving nude and spewing what appeared to be diarrhea as he flew through the air. I took that as a sign.

I'm seriously thinking of bailing. I use it solely to get info from various music people. Have never tweeted ever. Facebook is a no-go. I wish there was something built solely for musicians to use solely to connect with their audience. You know, only musical artists could create content and then we just follow them. Kind of like how Patreon works but free and strictly for news to the fans.

[emtee]

Bailed on Facebook a couple months ago. Never signed up for Twitter.

All of it is inherently bad for humanity as is our addiction to accessing all of it via our collective addiction to mobile phones.

Just found this.

https://www.cnn.com/2022/11/07/tech/kathy-griffin-twitter/index.html

Haha. Shitstorm incoming.

[Ben_Jamin]

Social Media is telling in that it reveals human behavior.

Humans are not, by nature, good. It's why we have doctrines and societies that instill order for our natural chaotic minds.

It's why nice things can be overtaken, manipulated, and utilized for detriment.

But also, humans hide behind a screen and will not behave this way in reality. And if we were to go into full on Virtual Reality, I'd like to see how that pans out. Especially now that humans can be whomever and  hide behind an avatar in this virtual world. I actually see this being way, way, worse if it were to be implemented by the masses.

Unless, we humans understand this behavior, it'll continue to be the shit storm brewing into a bigger storm.

[Dublagent66]

I had a Twitter account once for about 2 weeks then deleted it.  Never understood what the big deal is about Twitter.

[Samsara]

I joined Twitter 11 years ago when I was back working as a journalist. It was extremely valuable to get leads for stories and promote my work. Once I left journalism again (for the final time), it sat idle for a bit. But several years back now, when I picked up the NBA Season Pass to watch my Timberwolves, I found it great on game days to go back and forth with the TV broadcast team, something I do to this day.

As much as that is positive, however, the negativity on Twitter is undeniable. It IS a cesspool, despite the platform's uses. And the whole checkmark thing and now paying for it...that's a big mistake. Not sure what Elon Musk is trying to achieve, but paying for validation is not it.

[cramx3]

I enjoy twitter and still do.  I think people make too big of noise about Elon instead of just ignoring him.  Of course he could ruin the platform, but I find it unlikely.  I just think people are wayyyyy too invested in this one guy and he seems to get off on that.  Best to just ignore.

[Ben_Jamin]

I enjoy twitter and still do.  I think people make too big of noise about Elon instead of just ignoring him.  Of course he could ruin the platform, but I find it unlikely.  I just think people are wayyyyy too invested in this one guy and he seems to get off on that.  Best to just ignore.

"Don't make us poke your eyes out, Dad."

People won't do that, and Trump is the prime example how people can not seem to just ignore. Especially those celebrities that are just as bad at not ignoring, plus they also instigate and participate in this type of behavior. Just look at Kathy Griffin, and others joining in on the behavior of impersonating those blue checkmarks.

This is a prime example of why I do not idolize celebrities, basically people on TV. They're human, they have emotions, and are also prone to the same stupid mistakes, or happy little accidents, like everyone else.

If we want true equality, this means that every human must be held accountable and treated the same. Now we are seeing these celebrities being treated the same and actually being banned for violating the rule of impersonation. Which is a big issue because impersonation is identity fraud. You are claiming to be someone you are not, and if we are to fight this supposed "Online Bullying" that is affecting the young adolescent teens, the "adults" shouldn't be behaving like those young adolescent teens.

[Stadler]

I never had to block before the idiot bought it. I literally had no idea how to. I have probably blocked hundreds of accounts already. One of the first thing I was greeted with in my feed after the purchase was a dude cliff diving nude and spewing what appeared to be diarrhea as he flew through the air. I took that as a sign.

Link? 

[Stadler]

Social Media is telling in that it reveals human behavior.

Humans are not, by nature, good. It's why we have doctrines and societies that instill order for our natural chaotic minds.

It's why nice things can be overtaken, manipulated, and utilized for detriment.

But also, humans hide behind a screen and will not behave this way in reality. And if we were to go into full on Virtual Reality, I'd like to see how that pans out. Especially now that humans can be whomever and  hide behind an avatar in this virtual world. I actually see this being way, way, worse if it were to be implemented by the masses.

Unless, we humans understand this behavior, it'll continue to be the shit storm brewing into a bigger storm.

I don't think that's true any longer.  I don't think social media DOES reveal human behavior generally.  I think it games the system to a SPECIFIC human behavior.  We aren't bad by nature, but we all have a sort of light and dark.  I know I've not kicked Twitter, but I'm also not feeding my ego with likes and shares.  My insecurities are, lucky enough for me, sated in other ways.  But there are too many for whom that's not the case.  I have someone in my family who ought not be within 500 yards of social media but I can't do anything about it.  I can't - and won't - force her to get offline. Maybe if her hurtful addiction was heroin, it would be different, but social media is still touted as the next big thing and so how to point at the downside?

[Cool Chris]

Spoiler alert: they use the terms "in-groups" and "out-groups".  It was like watching porn for me!

Lots of ins and outs in the porn I watch too. Sometimes groups also.

[Ben_Jamin]

Social Media is telling in that it reveals human behavior.

Humans are not, by nature, good. It's why we have doctrines and societies that instill order for our natural chaotic minds.

It's why nice things can be overtaken, manipulated, and utilized for detriment.

But also, humans hide behind a screen and will not behave this way in reality. And if we were to go into full on Virtual Reality, I'd like to see how that pans out. Especially now that humans can be whomever and  hide behind an avatar in this virtual world. I actually see this being way, way, worse if it were to be implemented by the masses.

Unless, we humans understand this behavior, it'll continue to be the shit storm brewing into a bigger storm.

I don't think that's true any longer.  I don't think social media DOES reveal human behavior generally.  I think it games the system to a SPECIFIC human behavior.  We aren't bad by nature, but we all have a sort of light and dark.  I know I've not kicked Twitter, but I'm also not feeding my ego with likes and shares.  My insecurities are, lucky enough for me, sated in other ways.  But there are too many for whom that's not the case.  I have someone in my family who ought not be within 500 yards of social media but I can't do anything about it.  I can't - and won't - force her to get offline. Maybe if her hurtful addiction was heroin, it would be different, but social media is still touted as the next big thing and so how to point at the downside?

It highlights the dark side.

I don't utilize twitter because of the character limit. I think that's dumb and many things can not be said with only 200 characters. This is why I use mainly Facebook because there is no character limit.

I personally think Myspace was the best social media platform, in the sense of having an online profile that is the place where you could spew all the non-sense thoughts you are having.

I also do believe that the problems of social media lie in the aspects related to addictions. Such as how humans get a dopamine hit when their feelings, thoughts, and ideas are accepted by others. So to get that high, humans will do anything to garner that acceptance, this is highlighted by Tik-Tok.

A great experiment would be to see how people utilize social media if there are no such things as likes or comments, you can still be able to share stuff onto your page. To comment on these videos or posts, you would have to message the person directly, create a small private group chat, or join a public group on the social media site where you join a yahoo-chat like live discussion on the topics people want to chat about related to the group.


If anything my main social media addicitons are Facebook and DTF.

[MirrorMask]

I still think Facebook's original idea (well, not original-original, I've heard it was a bit creepy) would have worked just fine. Stay in touch with friends and long-lost acquaintances. I mean, even with the best of intentions, it's hard to keep in touch with everyone, and it's dispersive to write a mail to every ex coworker, ex school buddy, friend that moved away, couple that got kids and are busy etc.... on Facebook you have them all there, you add only people you know and like (hence the term "friends" and not "contacts" or "followers" - take the hint, it's for friends, that's why you're meant to use your own name) and see what they're up to and share whatever you feel like sharing.

I never got the appeal of Twitter. Never used it. I have an account, it's just a throwaway one that I use for following people that....... well, wouldn't be able to post the same stuff on Instagram, let's leave it at that 

[cramx3]

I never got the appeal of Twitter. Never used it. I have an account, it's just a throwaway one that I use for following people that....... well, wouldn't be able to post the same stuff on Instagram, let's leave it at that 

Funny enough, I started using twitter because everyone I know IRL wasn't using it.  For me, it was a clean social media platform where I can share what I want and follow what I want without the drama of people I know filling up my timeline and/or judging me like Facebook. Since then I've made some IRL friends from twitter from being my genuine self (and a bunch more people I'd love to meet IRL). 

[ProfessorPeart]

Spoiler alert: they use the terms "in-groups" and "out-groups".  It was like watching porn for me!

Lots of ins and outs in the porn I watch too. Sometimes groups also.

 

[TAC]

 

Nice.

[Skeever]

I still think Facebook's original idea (well, not original-original, I've heard it was a bit creepy) would have worked just fine. Stay in touch with friends and long-lost acquaintances. I mean, even with the best of intentions, it's hard to keep in touch with everyone, and it's dispersive to write a mail to every ex coworker, ex school buddy, friend that moved away, couple that got kids and are busy etc.... on Facebook you have them all there, you add only people you know and like (hence the term "friends" and not "contacts" or "followers" - take the hint, it's for friends, that's why you're meant to use your own name) and see what they're up to and share whatever you feel like sharing.

Yeah, agreed. Problem is that META care more about advertisers and using the platform to do social engineering experiments on their user base.

[Harmony]

Now I'm seeing people post that they cannot change their user names at all.

Oh the irony.  Mr. "free the bird" and "free speech" can't take it when people openly mock him so he's clamping down on users (even those with the blue checks) ability to manage their own accounts without restriction.

And yesterday he posted that you could not identify your account with another user's name - he even had the well-known account 'God' frozen for a bit unless you claimed you were a parody account.  So this comedian changed his name to Elon Musk (parody) and with every post put (parody) in it and today he still had his account eliminated.

Part of me is tempted to bail but the other part is like 

[Ben_Jamin]

Now I'm seeing people post that they cannot change their user names at all.

Oh the irony.  Mr. "free the bird" and "free speech" can't take it when people openly mock him so he's clamping down on users (even those with the blue checks) ability to manage their own accounts without restriction.

And yesterday he posted that you could not identify your account with another user's name - he even had the well-known account 'God' frozen for a bit unless you claimed you were a parody account.  So this comedian changed his name to Elon Musk (parody) and with every post put (parody) in it and today he still had his account eliminated.

Part of me is tempted to bail but the other part is like 

And this would be considered great marketing, because even though people could easily just leave and ignore it. People choose to continue to stay and watch the palace burn.

[HOF]

I would say that none of my twitter experience has changed since Musk took over. Unless it just goes under altogether I don’t expect it to, but I guess we’ll see.

[ReaperKK]

I still think Facebook's original idea (well, not original-original, I've heard it was a bit creepy) would have worked just fine. Stay in touch with friends and long-lost acquaintances. I mean, even with the best of intentions, it's hard to keep in touch with everyone, and it's dispersive to write a mail to every ex coworker, ex school buddy, friend that moved away, couple that got kids and are busy etc.... on Facebook you have them all there, you add only people you know and like (hence the term "friends" and not "contacts" or "followers" - take the hint, it's for friends, that's why you're meant to use your own name) and see what they're up to and share whatever you feel like sharing.

I never got the appeal of Twitter. Never used it. I have an account, it's just a throwaway one that I use for following people that....... well, wouldn't be able to post the same stuff on Instagram, let's leave it at that 

I got into facebook in college in 2006 and it was fantastic then. It really was fun to connect with friends, make friends through other friends, organize parties and share pictures with friends. I feel like various forms of online communication go through an early golden era before going to shit.

[XJDenton]

The joy of early social media is that it doesn't need to concern itself with being profitable.

[cramx3]

People choose to continue to stay and watch the palace burn.

Yup, I don't now if it is true, but Elon musked said twitter activity yesterday was at a high.

I would say that none of my twitter experience has changed since Musk took over. Unless it just goes under altogether I don’t expect it to, but I guess we’ll see.

The only difference I see are more tweets bitching about him which makes my experience slightly worse.  I started clicking the "see fewer tweets like this" option last night on accounts that won't stop talking about it,  but otherwise, yeah my overall experience is the same and I don't expect much difference in the near future.  Who knows in the long run if he starts making more changes.  The blue check mark thing doesn't really bother me.

I still think Facebook's original idea (well, not original-original, I've heard it was a bit creepy) would have worked just fine. Stay in touch with friends and long-lost acquaintances. I mean, even with the best of intentions, it's hard to keep in touch with everyone, and it's dispersive to write a mail to every ex coworker, ex school buddy, friend that moved away, couple that got kids and are busy etc.... on Facebook you have them all there, you add only people you know and like (hence the term "friends" and not "contacts" or "followers" - take the hint, it's for friends, that's why you're meant to use your own name) and see what they're up to and share whatever you feel like sharing.

I never got the appeal of Twitter. Never used it. I have an account, it's just a throwaway one that I use for following people that....... well, wouldn't be able to post the same stuff on Instagram, let's leave it at that 

I got into facebook in college in 2006 and it was fantastic then. It really was fun to connect with friends, make friends through other friends, organize parties and share pictures with friends. I feel like various forms of online communication go through an early golden era before going to shit.

I also started on facebook in 2005 during my sophomore year in college.  It was cool to easily see what my high school friends were up to that I wasn't close with and then connect with my current friends in college and get to see a smart part of their life outside college.  I definitely didn't think much about the impact of facebook back then.  It seemed harmless and a fun way to connect.  I think that's the only reason why I still have it, because I have so much history with it and lots of pictures and events still on there. I'm not a fan of facebook and almost never post or comment on it anymore.  I also restrict myself so people can't easily find me, see my old stuff, or share things on my timeline anymore.  Funny how it's changed so much and my attitude towards it also has.  Also another reason why I probably am so much more active on twitter, because I'm not active on facebook. 

[HOF]

Just mute "Elon" and "Musk" and you'll clean up a lot of the complaining on Twitter. But this is also nothing new. There is a main character on twitter just about every day (and you don't want to be that character). People just like to complain about something/someone.

I've never quite understood people complaining about Facebook either. That environment is entirely what you make it too. Friend the people you want to interact with, and unfriend/unfollow anyone you don't. But I will say it's worse than Twitter for me in the sense that it is exclusively family and friends there, and when they post something incendiary it is somewhat harder to ignore. I have really curtailed my follows to cut off people who post about politics a bunch over the years. It's mostly just a boring place with few posts these days. I'm only really there for a few specific music forums now.

[Stadler]

I still think Facebook's original idea (well, not original-original, I've heard it was a bit creepy) would have worked just fine. Stay in touch with friends and long-lost acquaintances. I mean, even with the best of intentions, it's hard to keep in touch with everyone, and it's dispersive to write a mail to every ex coworker, ex school buddy, friend that moved away, couple that got kids and are busy etc.... on Facebook you have them all there, you add only people you know and like (hence the term "friends" and not "contacts" or "followers" - take the hint, it's for friends, that's why you're meant to use your own name) and see what they're up to and share whatever you feel like sharing.

Yeah, agreed. Problem is that META care more about advertisers and using the platform to do social engineering experiments on their user base.

You expected otherwise?  I don't say that to be snarky or dismissive, but I sort of don't understand why we're not more objective - not the right word, I understand - with companies like this.  Why would we expect otherwise?

I think too many people are treating things like Facebook and Instachat and Snapgram like they are our metaphysical bedrooms, expecting a level of comfort, cooperation, and privacy that we should never ever be expectant about.

[Stadler]

The joy of early social media is that it doesn't need to concern itself with being profitable.

Well, it DID or should have, concerned itself with profitability, and if it didn't, then we were really at the nascent "dot.com" period, where 95% of companies failed, and RIGHTFULLY SO.  You can't operate a company without being profitable; who pays the rent?  Who pays the salaries?  Companies are not charities!