Twitter on Steriods: X Marks the Spot
Hmmm, is the demise of the iconic blue bird signal the era of Twitter on steroids?
The blue bird has been kicked out of the nest by the ominous character X. No, it’s not the plot for a Disney Pixar animated movie. It is the virtual manifestation of a grand rebranding of the social media platform Twitter that Elon Musk purchased last October.
Twitter has been on rocky ground oflate. It lost half of its advertising revenue when many large companies pulledtheir ads from the platform because of an increase in what is perceived to beexplicit and hateful content.
It is also being threatened by Facebook’s launch of Threads which elbowed its way into the virtual space Twitter currently occupies. Threads reached 100 million users within five days setting a record for the fastest app to ever do so.
The rebranding is part of Musk’s grandvision to transform Twitter into the Everything App. The end goal is aone-stop, AI driven shop for online needs including online messaging and e- commerce.Musk launched an artificial intelligence company called xAI to develop agenerative artificial intelligence program for this purpose.
Why is Musk rebranding Twitter as X? He has a longstanding affinity with the character X dating back 20 years when he launched an online banking and payments company called X.com which later merged with PayPal. My understanding is that Musk repurchased X.com and the domain now redirects to Twitter.
As a Baby Boomer, the technologyinvolved in this quantum leap transformation is beyond my comprehension. Iunderstand artificial intelligence in very general terms. But the nitty grittyof it is light years beyond my capacity to grasp.
The aspect of the equation that concerns me is the Everything App concept. I perceive it as an attempt to become the Amazon of all apps. Just as you can order practically anything on Amazon, Musk envisions an app that becomes the single door to all online activity. The ultimate big fish in the biggest of virtual oceans – perhaps even usurping Amazon itself.
I am of the opinion that it is a dangerousthing when so much power and accompanying wealth is consolidated in one placeand under one person’s control. The result can be: Play by my rules or donot play at all.
Elon Musk is already the wealthiestperson in the world with a net worth of somewhere in the neighbourhood of $240billion. I do not like the idea of fattening his bank account even more and empoweringhim to be the gatekeeper of the online world of commerce.
If Musk realizes his vision, X marks the spot will become a metaphor for a narrow, online door that we all have to pass through paying a toll to Musk every time. Twitter on steroids: A dystopian virtual world for which the demise of the iconic blue bird sets the stage.
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~ Michael Robert Dyet is also the author of Untilthe Deep Water Stills – An Internet-enhanced Novel which was a double winner inthe Reader Views Literary Awards 2009. Visit Michael’s website at www.mdyetmetaphor.com .
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