Leaving Twitter

Today marks the thirty day period of my Twitter deactivation, which means my account is now slated for deletion. Taking this step is reminiscent of when I deleted my Facebook account over a decade ago. It again feels like a bigger thing than it practically is - I haven’t missed my account over the past thirty days, at all.

Maybe some of you are thinking about keeping or deleting your Twitter account. There is plenty of input for that thinking. Here’s a brief recap of some of the news items that I considered:

• Researchers scramble as Twitter plans to end free data access
• Twitter makes unexplained logo change to Dogecoin cryptocurrency image
• Twitter’s been sending press the poop emoji.
• Twitter is ending free SMS two-factor authentication.
• Critics say the social media platform allowed the Turkish government to silence criticism.
• NPR to quit Twitter after being labelled ‘state-affiliated media’
• Twitter’s head of trust and safety resigns in latest high-profile departure
• With DeSantis campaign event, Musk seeks to shore up a sinking Twitter
• Scaling back of moderation and rise of AI are creating the perfect storm to weaken elections and democracy

The story these items tell me is that the organization behind the platform can no longer be expected to (1) operate within the bounds of the law, (2) enables its own power at the expense of people on the platform, and (3) is unreliable. These are some of the issues I take with the platform nowadays, and I prefer to spend my limited energy working for things instead of against things. I will miss all the connections I made on there, but I decreasingly found it worthwhile to use.

I already shared some of my thoughts on Mastodon before, and of course Mastodon has its issues - I’m not 100% sold on it either. Many people who signed up were one foot in, one foot out, but increasingly people are two feet out. This means that people I’d like to interact with may be on Twitter, but not on Mastodon. That’s okay - I enjoy meeting people where they are, but I’m also not going to a party where I think the music is awful just to meet people - that’s simply a recipe for not having a good time.