I don’t need Twitter to lose what makes it particular. It feels just like the one social community I’ve ever really loved utilizing is about to turn into very totally different, and doubtlessly far much less significant in my life. It makes me unhappy, and I’m prepared to guess I’m not the one one feeling this fashion.
This isn’t a rallying cry to stay round or a heartfelt obituary, however slightly a narrative about what Twitter means to me, and sure plenty of different folks, at this time.
My Twitter
Elon Musk buying Twitter means some who’re involved about the way forward for the platform are actually contemplating leaving it. I do know, I’m one in all them.
The difficulty is, fairly aside from there being nowhere else to go, I don’t actually need to depart. I’ve spent greater than a decade on Twitter, and it has turn into a fastidiously curated supply of happiness, friendship, and companionship for me.
However what makes it particular, and why don’t I need to depart? Twitter is a part of me, and it has positively made me considerably recognizable through the years, each personally and professionally. I’ve made mates there, alternatives for all types of issues have emerged, and I’ve felt a part of at the least one “motion.” Twitter has been a surprisingly significant a part of my life.
On a number of journeys all over the world I’ve met folks I knew solely by means of Twitter, and have completed some superb issues with them due to it. I’ve conversed with a hero of mine by means of the platform, and been in a position to meet and spend time with singers who I solely bought to know due to Twitter.
Most lately I’ve linked with folks by means of a shared love of the Ok-pop group Iz*one, and it has been superb to share pleasure and disappointment with them, and to really really feel a part of one thing particular. The extra I give it some thought, the extra enjoyable and thrilling issues which have began out on Twitter come to my thoughts.
Twitter is at all times open as a tab in Chrome throughout my working day, and put in on each telephone I exploit. I make a acutely aware effort to commonly tweet and to at the least attempt to make my contributions vaguely attention-grabbing. I hope describing it like this reveals it’s significance to me, and the way I believe it has genuinely improved my life. But it surely goes deeper than that, and that’s the place the considered leaving, or the platform dramatically altering, actually considerations me.
Pandemic life
Because the pandemic started in 2020 my life has modified immeasurably, similar to it has for tens of millions of others. One factor it actually emphasised is how few those who I do know stay anyplace close to me, and the way small that has made my social circle. With out journey and common occasions linked to work, I see only a few folks certainly.
Twitter is the place I sustain with all those that I not get to bodily meet. It’s the pure dwelling of the journalist, much more so than every other social platform, and so even the vaguest of acquaintances I’ve made have some form of presence there. I’ll not speak to all of them that usually, nevertheless it’s the one place I do know I can. I’m not the one one both. Earlier than one of many few occasions I’ve been to this yr, a journalist pal despatched me a DM on Twitter so we might met up. With out Twitter, this wouldn’t have occurred.
It’s all these items mixed that made me notice how personally connected I’m to Twitter, and respect the influence it has had on me. If I used to be to up and depart I’d virtually definitely lose contact with many individuals, purely as a result of I don’t have the chance to see them in actual life, and our solely supply of interplay till this level has been Twitter.
All of the constructive issues which have come my approach resulting from Twitter wouldn’t disappear, however I actually consider fewer new issues would come my approach as a consequence of not being lively. There may be additionally little doubt in any respect that I might turn into much more socially remoted.
Not about me any extra
I’ve made this story about me. It’s not one thing I like doing, however as a result of it’s a few social community — an intrinsically private factor — it appeared becoming. It’s additionally the one true strategy to illustrate what makes Twitter particular. It’s about me, not in an egotistical sense, however as a result of it’s an area constructed across the issues and the folks I like.
Nevertheless, as with every part Elon Musk-related, even my fastidiously curated Twitter world is changing into all about him. I worry it will turn into more and more harder to keep away from as he pushes his personal agenda. Like all divisive and highly effective figures, his adoring followers will likely be fast to share his each phrase and declare every step as a victory, most likely much more so than they do already. I actually can’t blame anybody for wanting to depart due to his affect and the upheaval it can inevitably generate.
Given how integral to my life it’s, and the dearth of anyplace else to go, it seems like the top of one thing really distinctive is coming.
I don’t know what Elon Musk intends to do with the platform, and this isn’t the place to enter his intentions, however I don’t belief him. That lack of belief, the uncertainly over his plans, and an unwillingness to indulge what could possibly be the narcissistic whim of the world’s richest man, makes me query how for much longer I’ll need to use Twitter.
Given how integral to my life it’s, and the dearth of anyplace else to go, it’s an extremely exhausting determination and one which makes me fairly unhappy.
The start of the top, or a brand new starting?
I hope I’m mistaken. That it’s nothing greater than the standard worry of change that goes together with many main alterations to our lives. I don’t need to look again on this text in a yr’s time and assume I used to be proper. In reality, I don’t need to write any form of observe up. I need to tweet that I used to be fallacious, as a result of it will imply I’m nonetheless utilizing Twitter commonly, and one of many key connections to my very own wider world continues to be intact. I’m pretty positive I gained’t be the one one considering the identical factor.
What makes Twitter particular isn’t the memes, whether or not there are spam bots or not, or one particular person’s interpretation of free speech. It’s you and me, and if even one in all us leaves due to this takeover, then not solely will the platform be worse for it, there’s a powerful probability another person’s life will likely be too.
That’s definitely the best way it is going to be for me.
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