I finally deactivated my Twitter account last night. I had stopped using it a long while ago and then I took it private, but it was still there. I thought that I needed to keep it because I wanted to secure the handle and keep someone else from taking it but how likely is that, and who the fuck cares anyway?
I started this blog with a post about Elon and Twitter so I won’t rehash that. I don’t feel bad about pulling the plug though, it’s now not deserving of even a moment of my time to spend there.
I do feel bad about what we have all lost though. I started on Twitter pretty early on, although I really preferred early competitor Pownce before they were acquired and shuttered in 2008. I lived through all the fail whales and all the changes that were surely going to “ruin the service” – like when they changed who saw replies and when they added the retweet button.
I made a lot of friends, joined chats, met a future employer and even got a job or two because of it. I connected with a lot of people, even some famous ones. I joked with Peter Frampton and chatted with Andy Partridge about Nonsuch. I even had a very funny exchange with Van Dyke Parks.
I discovered great bands like High on Stress, Runaway Dorothy, Blizzard of 78 and more that I can’t even imagine hitting my radar without Twitter.
When I was diagnosed with cancer in 2018, I connected with and received support from a whole community of people in ways that I never could have imagined. A wonderful human I didn’t even know named Coleen put my chemo schedule on her calendar and she would wish me good luck and then check in and see how I was faring after.
Twitter used to be a reliable place to get news and public information. A blue check meant something and the trending topics were a good indicator or barometer of what was happening.
I’m not going to waste time and words on what it has become, but it has ceased to contribute any value to my life. I never imagined this would be the case given how useful and enjoyable it once was to me but I guess that day has come.
Bye Twitter. There are, and will continute to be, many imitators but nothing will ever be able to recreate the shared experiences we had as we helped it grow and evolve, only to watch it disintegrate before our very eyes.
Your thoughts?