We are about a month into the Elon-ification of Twitter and I’m coming to the conclusion that Twitter seems less fun now. Now, I’d argue since around 2016, Twitter has had a completely different vibe altogether and it hasn’t always been pleasant.
Since Elon took over, I’ve noticed my feed is doing 3 things:
- Showing fewer tweets from people I follow
- Showing more suggested tweets based on topics
- Showing more Elon specific content
Twitter is at its best, in my opinion, when tweets are simply a chronological feed (counter to points 1 and 2), and people are generally being nice which is definitely a counter to point 3*.
The Fix
I think the fix for Twitter is far bigger for any individual user. However, I’m going to start blocking, muting, and unfollowing far more aggressively. I don’t think the product has changed that much but I’m far less interested in Elon drama and political arguments** than I am about tech. We will see.
*I don’t know Elon. Never met him. However by his tweets, he seems like a jerk and I’d rather see fewer jerks in the world.
** I recognize that it comes from a place of privilege, to want to turn off politics. I suspect I can better support the things I care about when I can at least partially choose when to engage. This is a bigger topic than a foot note but just wanted to say that this isn’t lost on me.