A few thoughts about Twitter. Or is it X? Whatever
...And an update of sorts
Do you remember what it felt like the first time you signed into a social media platform? Do you remember the excitement, the exhilaration when you discovered people who had the same sorts of interests as you? What was it like when you found a favorite author, musician or fan group? It’s a feeling I’ll never forget.
I became aware of social media as a parent. The parents of one of our daughters best friends reached out to us way, way back in the dark ages of DSL to let us know that their daughter and our daughter had created a MySpace page without permission from either set of parents. They thought the page was inappropriate and that we should make them take it down. So we went and looked. In my opinion, the only thing inappropriate about their page was that they hadn’t asked permission. But I also remember thinking, “What a waste of time.” Yes, we made them take it down.
My opinion changed when I learned about Twitter and created my first account. It seemed like it would be a great way to get news from reliable sources. I thought that it could help me build my own brand and search for new business. I signed up in 2009 and for many years enjoyed being on the platform far more than other platforms like Facebook, Instagram or LinkedIn. The results were clear: Twitter did raise my profile. It did help me bring me in new business. As a news source, it was invaluable. It seemed pretty easy to vet sources.
Many things happened on Twitter that probably wouldn’t have happened otherwise. I recall a fascinating discussion with a UK journalism professor about magazine covers back in my early years on the platform. I became friendly with an Australian news agent and learned about the news agent business. I was introduced to a wide circle of people in magazine related businesses: Printing, comics, libraries, social marketing, subscription management. Twitter was easy to use, wide open. Even in its earlier incarnations there were trolls and impersonators, frauds, fakes and wackadoos, but they were easy to mute and ignore if you stumbled across one..
Plus, there was “Author Twitter” which I thought that was the very best Twitter.
I’m old enough to remember that the internet we were promised was supposed to be free, easy to use, open to everyone. It was supposed to usher in a nirvana of information and wide ranging ideas and ideals. But now I wonder how we fell for that and didn’t realize that when you open the doors to everyone and everything and have little to no guardrails, a whole lot of trolls and troublemakers will not be far behind? When there are literally no rules, the rule is chaos.
It’s not surprising that the Twitter experience degraded. I’ve covered some of the articles about the “enshittification” of platforms in the past and I think the analysis is spot on.
I hardly ever go onto Twitter anymore. I chose Post as a back up but personally, I find the experience dull and the news sources I’d like to use don’t seem to be there. Instagram feels clunky and full of advertising I don’t want no matter how I tweak my settings. On Facebook, I’ve curated my feed to a few family members and mostly use it as a way to communicate with people from an animal shelter where I volunteer.
Companies frequently re-brand themselves. They change names, re-launch, refresh. It happens in the magazine business all the time. Do you recall KIII? what about Primedia? Or EMAP USA, Family Media, the original Meredith? Martha Stewart was the CEO of OmniMedia. Time, Inc was a major player once. Products disappear. Reappear. Rename themselves. I’d have to spend the better part of the day listing all of the “relaunches” I’ve done over the years.
If Elon Musk wants to rebrand his little blue bird with a weird looking X that apparently reminds a bunch super online folk of a porn site, well, that’s his prerogative. Maybe it will work. Good luck. Mazel -tov. Bless your heart. The man certainly done a remarkable job of trashing what was left of the Twitter experience and blowing up his own personal brand at the same time.
In all of this, I think, there’s a serious lesson. It especially rings true for those of us in the magazine media business: Can we rely on other platforms to build our audiences?
The answer is that, yes, you should use these platforms. But you use them at your own risk. And I’m beginning to think you be on all of them to draw in even the smallest bit of incremental audience. You just can’t rely on any one of them too much because otherwise, as we’ve seen over and over with Facebook, Instagram, AppleNews+ and now Twitter: It’s their platform and they can and will do whatever the heck they want to with it.
Even burn it to the ground in the name of a misguided interpretation of “free speech.”
So what to do?
For me, until I have an opportunity to grab some of my content and contacts from the site, my feed will remain up. But I’m done with Twitter, or X or whatever. I sort of hoped that Elon Musk wouldn’t be unreliable and unstable. But he has proven himself to be that and much more. He may build interesting cars and rocket ships, but even that department, I have questions and no trust. If you tell us who you are, we should believe you from the start. And then give you a super wide berth.
And what about this site? What about Substack?
I was initially very enthusiastic about Substack. Boy does that sound familiar, huh? My sub base doubled quickly when I first moved here and has grown steadily since. But there’s a difference between paying work and brand building. Something I already knew from my blogging days and back when I was building my Twitter following.
And unfortunately, it turns out that this site is also home to racists, Neo-Nazis, anti-semites, transphobes, and homophobes. Like other platforms, you can avoid them if you don’t go looking for them. But you can always bump into them because they’re always looking for you. And I keep asking myself, if you own this platform, why would you want racists, Neo-Nazis, anti-semites, transphobes and homophobes roaming freely and perverting your brand?
People with marginal opinions? Racists, Neo-Nazis, transphobes, homophobes, anti-semites…why should they be mainstreamed?
These are not good people. They are marginal people. They should not be encouraged, platformed, given oxygen for their opinions. There’s a reason Lyndon LaRouche never caught on.
What to do? Well, right now I’m hip deep with multiple projects so you’ve probably noticed I’ve not been keeping to my original publishing schedule.
Today’s posting was supposed to be very short, just acknowledge that fact and inform you that I plan to be back to my regular schedule on August 15th once I’ve completed all of the projects I’m working on. That will most likely still happen. But it may be on a different platform. We’ll see.
In the meantime…
Thanks for the memories, Twitter. I’m looking at you Substack…
Your moment of magazine zen…
I hope you enjoyed this newsletter. Please “Like” and subscribe. You’ll get a brand new release in your email in-box every Tuesday (Starting on August 15th).
Want to find me on the social sites?
My Instagram link is here.
I’m now hanging out at Post.News and you can find me here on this new app.
Every now and then I get to put on a suit and tie and comb my hair. Here’s my LinkedIn profile if you want to see me looking all professional.
Like I said, I have a Twitter feed. You can find me here, but I’m not posting.
That’s all I’ve got for you this week! Stay cool, stay hydrated, stay away from the Hydrox cookies in the break room vending machine. They’ve been there since before the pandemic!
