The great Twitter panic of 2022
A fair number of people on Twitter have informed their followers that they have also set up on Mastodon just in case the world ends or some such. I don't doubt that Elon Musk could mess the whole thing up - but chances are things will stay fine in the Twitter world.Okay, I may lose my blue tick, which would be sad. I was told I ought to get one by an Olympic martial arts competitor, the way you do. We were at some sort of careers fair in Devizes (don't ask me why - I can't remember) and no one seemed to want to talk to either of us, so we chatted for a while and she was adamant that having a blue tick would make all the difference to my social media presence. But looking over the people I follow on Twitter, a mix do and don't have one and it's never made any difference to me - I certainly won't be paying getting on for £100 a year to keep it.
That apart, the outrage seems to be because Twitter may allow various dubious characters individuals back on. But for me, this is pretty much irrelevant. I mostly follow scientists and writers - all lovely people. I've never seen or had any abuse on this social media site that some consider a cesspit. (Perhaps because I don't generally follow politicians or activists.) It's a great way to keep up with the people I follow and, I hope, for people interested in my writing to keep up with me - and I can't see why that should change. Moving off Twitter seems to be cutting off your nose to spite your face.
As for the obscure social media site Mastodon - why? I'd never heard of it before this all happened - and most people still haven't. The way it's set up with its separate, individually owned servers seems in some ways rather dodgy - and it certainly seems ti have very limited ability to prevent exactly the type of content that those abandoning Twitter seem to be worried about. For that matter, apparently, any server could be switched off at any time, losing all your content.
it's much more sensible, I would suggest, to stick with Twitter, keep up the networks you've built and ensure the content continues to be as excellent as it has been to date... certainly within my bubble.
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A few days ago, the great John Cougar Mellencamp spoke out against the rising tide of antisemitism. When he shouted "Silence is Complicity," that bit of truth echoed throughout social mediaverses and beyond.Today's Twitter quandary is not limited just to those pubsubbing political twaddle. The question is not "How will Elon Musk affect me personally" through his changes at Twitter. Rather, the question I have been trying to answer (for myself) is whether I can stand behind a media platform that may be supporting hate and harm. This turns out to be a more challenging question than I should rightfully admit.
Companies like Twitter measure success by their subscriber numbers, so Qwitters in sufficient numbers will diminish the company's returns. By that logic, if I don't believe in the company anymore than I should take my clicks elsewhere.
But then, I rationalize, I am just one little guy who uses Twitter minimally, and it wouldn't matter to Twitter whether I stay or go. I actually like Musk as an innovator, and maybe things wouldn't be that bad at Twitter, and maybe it is okay to layoff the team that fights election misinformation just before the election.
"Silence is Compicity." There it is, the echo. So the right question, reframed, is simply "What are my beliefs?" Guess I'll be looking into a Mastodon account soon.
Dennis39784 wrote: " By that logic, if I don't believe in the company anymore than I should take my clicks elsewhere." I slightly struggle with this in that I don't really 'believe in' any companies. I don't believe, for instance, in my energy company - but I still need energy. I find Twitter useful, and as such I'm prepared to use the product. Moving to Mastodon, I think, would be moving to a product that doesn't do what I need it to do.
Perhaps it's because I don't much care about Twitter, "tweets", the "twitterverse", etc. that I consider Musk's involvement with all that to be trivial - at least when compared to SpaceX, Tesla, StarLink, etc.
Millions of "twits" (is that right?) who (apparently) use the service for actual news - in addition to mere entertainment - might disagree.
(Apparently) many of those believe a private service should "police" certain "dubious characters" - in a sense to extend "the" nanny-state (actually a multiplicity of such states) to regulate peaceful adult behavior beyond what "it" (they) already regulate(s).
(Thus the "outrage" you alluded to)
I wonder if a certain former U.S. President will get the "blue tick" imprimateur?