Twitter was known as a medium for friendly discourse—where anybody could share their opinions and receive a healthy lecture if disagreement was the consensus. Typically, replies were typed with kind language and forgiving tones. Ugly arguments were very rare. Users scrolled out of the app having felt calmer than before.
That sardonic paragraph exemplifies how easy it was to tweet and make something up on the spot. Although, with Twitter’s new owner, it is not so easy anymore. The inviting Twitter bird has flown far away and was banished by a disapproving X. The app is no longer the platform for short-form messages. It is no longer Twitter.
In August, I deleted Twitter. Before that, I hardly used it but I would occasionally check in from time to time. My hiatus prevented me from hearing the news—I’m utterly shocked at how little talk I’ve heard about this name change.
My journey on Twitter goes back to 2013 when I first started watching YouTubers like Bethany Mota and Pewdiepie. Celebrities would use Twitter to communicate to their fans, replying to tweets and hosting giveaways. It was a form of entertainment in its own way. Users would hear when the latest YouTube video was out. Fans would try to get noticed by celebrities by spamming them with replies. Nowadays, past users run the other direction since the app seems to have been overthrown by politicians and business leaders. It’s a different atmosphere.
According to Elon Musk’s tweet on July 25, 2023, “The Twitter name made sense when it was 140 character messages going back and forth –like birds tweeting– but now you can post almost anything, including several hours of video.”
Well, the name change has been put into effect and the app has lost its meaning to me.
My biggest reservation about X is that it’s too ambiguous. How do we refer to messages on X? If the whole point of Twitter is gone, will X be another Instagram or Tik Tok?
When I looked into this new name, I noticed that the twitter hyperlink is still twitter.com. Perhaps that is the last remnant of the ghost app. The rest lives in our memories, much like the gone but never forgotten Vine. What will be next on the chopping block?
