Elon Musk paid 44 Bill USD to acquire Twitter last week and take it private. This is the social platform that I have been active on since 2009. Over the years, I almost stopped using Facebook, have reduced my time on Whatsapp Groups and have never really done much on Instagram (got an account during Covid). I tried Clubhouse and didn’t stick around and was never a fan of TiKTok. However for the last 13 years, Twitter has been my social media companion. I like it for the following reasons:
- Simplicity in usage – the product hasn’t changed much since Day 1
- Forces one to be precise due the limitation on the length of the tweet. As someone said – “I have made this longer than usual because I have not had time to make it shorter.” I also like this as a consumer of content.
- Has been less ad intrusive compared to Facebook & Google
- Has exposed me to a wide variety of content and experts
- Has transformed how I consume news – I have access to news, opinions, narratives across the spectrum of ideologies.
- The social impact it has had – the uprisings in countries like Egypt, the ability to get people together for a good cause.
I have disliked Twitter for some reasons:
- The top trends feature – some of which are manufactured by Bots and paid users
- The trolling of politicians, media personalities, businessmen – instead of meaningful debate, twitter conversations are usually very hateful
- Being misused to spread disinformation, though not as bad as Whatsapp or Youtube.
But on the whole, I have enjoyed this platform. Like everyone else, I am watching with trepidation the impact of the changes that Elon will do to Twitter:
- The moderation changes – will it result in more hate, more disinformation, more entrenched positions?
- The plan to charge 8$ per month for a blue tick – will it result in fake experts/spreading of false news? Will it mean that the “trusted” content creators will move away from the platform?
- Will advertising increase on the platform – will the technology become better at targeting personalized ads?
Elon has created excellent companies like Tesla & SpaceX – he is an optimist and believes that the world can be a better place. So, I am hopeful, that what he does will be overall positive for Twitter’s consumers including me. For now, I am going to wait & watch.
gopaldevanahalli 