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Is another Twitter post okay? People are panicking about Twitter and Elon Musk's actions so far.
https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2022/10/elon-musk-twitter-disastrous-weekend/671942/
I'm someone who has never loved Twitter and I am dismayed at how it influences media and national discourse. It seems to foster a special brand of toxicity and bring out the worst impulses and tendencies of online interaction. My question is, what if the best case scenario happens and it totally implodes? Imagine - advertisers leave, users sunset their accounts, the thing just turns into a ghost town. Do you think national discourse changes for the better? What platform do all those frustrated users move to and will that platform just turn into another Twitter? Is there an equivalent platform at all? Will media outlets actually have to start reporting on meaningful content rather than the latest Twitter dust-up? Those high-profile personalities who suck all the oxygen out of the room, will people simply stop paying attention to them without a platform?
The "Math twitter" people I follow are either cloning their tweets to a Mastodon account or moving to Mastodon entirely. I don't think it'll supplant Twitter, but it might.
The free-speech-fan in me loves the idea of this genre of network application becoming mostly decentralized/federated. The schadenfreude-fan in me can't wait to see the cognitive dissonance when the "I can't use a system that won't censor other people enough" crowd realize how badly they have failed to solve that problem. The SpaceX fan in me is worried over how far Twitter's value might crash and how badly Musk might have trashed his future ability to raise investment for more important causes.
Math...Twitter?
Agreed on all points, though. Especially regarding Musk, who doesn’t seem to be in a good position right now. Anything he does to Twitter will either damage his net worth or disappoint his more rabid fans. Or both. @greyenlightenment really wants to believe that reinstating Trump will recoup his investment; I don’t think it actually matters. Those who care about being on Twitter, by and large, already are, and yet it sucks.
The technologist in me also fears that adopting another tech specifically designed to allow filter bubbles might have some deleterious effects. Twitter is already full of islands; separating them further doesn’t seem beneficial for polarization.
TWTR peaked at $80, shorty after Trump was banned. Twitter stock went up 300%, from $20 when Trump was inaugurated, to $80 when he was finally suspended. Coincidence? Maybe but more engagement does not hurt. Sure, everyone already has a Twitter account, but having Trump active will mean more activity, more clicks, more ad views, etc.
Twitter went public in 2013. The presidency also saw countless corporate restructurings, acquisitions, and site redesigns. Shockingly, they even added features such as 280-character limits. These are confounding factors with no effect from Trump.
He probably boosted engagement relative to a Hillary or Jeb! candidacy. I don’t think that would replicate. The shock value has worn off, in part thanks to relentless media coverage of every POTUS tweet. The biggest legacy of his time on Twitter is that more people are jaded and think it’s a cesspit full of witches.
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