How important is Twitter?

[Chocchops72]

Is it likely to go tits up and disappear? And if it does, does it matter?

i go on Twitter quite a lot, mostly to follow a few accounts linked to subjects I’m interested in (politics, news, climate change, science, old buildings, travel). I rarely post. ATM there is a lot of hand wringing and concern that ‘something should be done’ to preserve what Twitter provides - but I’m not sure what that is and how important it is?

Is Twitter important to you?

I like it for work links - lots of connections with great sustainable design debates and info especially on the technical side of stuff like passivhaus, material use etc
I also find it fab for connecting with others who have my medical condition - loads of discussion about meds, coping with various things and support and also others who support people with dementia (my mum has it)
DH uses it lots in medical politics circles and
Everything else can be amusing and awful in equal measure depends what you look at on it
It's not essential but I would miss it if it were gone.

I use it quite regularly mainly to follow subjects I'm interested in but Elons behaviour is appalling. Letting Trump back in is just irresponsible. So it looks like I'm looking for a new platform!

I hope it does go, I've moved over to Mastadon which seems much nicer and not run for profit or by one big entity. Those of you that use twitter for professional connections eg. Medical, law, academics etc should definitely try it, there's a quickly growing community over there.

I use Twitter all the time although my feed is limited to law, politics and We Rate Dogs.
I'm going to shift over to Mastodon when I can be bothered to set it up.

After being on Twitter for 10 years, I just now deactivated my account. Elon Musk is a twat.

I've never used it so wouldn't miss it

I use Twitter (medtwitter) almost exclusively for professional purposes and would miss it if it went. The vast majority of people who I follow are linked to my clinical specialty and a huge amount of my CPD is initiated by links to newly published research, conferences (which I can’t attend) or just debates between clinicians about a subject or case presentation.

I also like to mix up my geriatrics heavy feed with the World Bollard Association feed, photos of birds, The Women’s art feed and Out of context Seinfeld.
Lev Parisian has also been doing the World Cup of random English words for MONTHS now and I will be FUMING if Twitter dies before the final.

Lev Parikian

Instagram and Facebook are fun to look at but really are just people showing off.

I use Twitter in a very different way, almost anonymously (very few people I know follow me and vice versa). If you follow the right people, it's a great source of breaking news and intelligent opinion. I find myself seeing stories in mainstream media which I read two to three days before on Twitter.

An unpopular view on MN, but I find Twitter an amazing resource and it will be a real tragedy if Musk brings it down. I use it a lot for my work, which relates to climate change. Stories appear quickly which don’t even make mainstream media, e.g. videos from people caught up in climate disasters, experts commenting on the news.
I love coming across threads on interesting and obscure topics, that I can reply to journalists and authors and get replies, that there’s lots of very very funny stuff as well. I know there is toxicity and harassment but I’ve not experienced it personally.
Other social media platforms are really limited by comparison. On Twitter you can turn off the algorithm and simply see all the tweets from people you follow. Facebook won’t let you do that any more, decides you really want to see the same posts over again, and is a nightmare for campaign groups and non-profits since it hides posts that aren’t paid promotions even if people sign up to follow them. Instagram is fun for pretty pictures and otherwise pointless. I have no desire to go on TikTok and communicate everything through the medium of video (shudder). I just signed up for Mastodon but it feels tiny and clunky so far, compared to the ease of searching on Twitter and the vast amount of interesting stuff out there.

It is a blip in the history of humankind. We will survive without it.

I use it for gender critical stuff because fb and insta don't seem suitable for that. I find the algorithm frustrating though because I follow a lot of different topics yet all I ever see is trans trans trans. How do you block the algorithm?

Occasionally I start a new account to aim for a mixed feed but they all end up exclusively trans stuff, which I find depressing.

Only used it a few years and never fully got to understand how it works. I follow a few historians and love the random stuff they post particularly the photos and films. I follow other random people I find interesting.

I also follow people I fundamentally disagree with to see if I can understand where they are coming from. There is a lot of simplistic language and arguments put forward for whatever the subject is, lots of name calling and lots of egos on display. I find that side of things odd. I also find it strange the echo chamber it seems to create with people falling people they passionately agree with.

It's a strange place.

I've never used it.

Absolutely this. And I don’t think there is another social media site that provides the same thing currently.
Mastodon might get there, but it takes years to build up the type of community Twitter has.

Twitter past me by, don't know anyone that uses it. Just hear about the odd debate/argument in the press.

I'd miss it a lot. I struggle in face to face conversation with people I don't know well, and phone calls are even worse. So it's become the place where I have most communication with people outside of my 'close' circle. I wouldn't be entirely isolated without it, but I'd definitely notice it not being there!

@BIWI It's bedtime here, it's on
my DHs account, will do tomoz!

^. This is me exactly

I don't understand posters who say ...Ive used Twitter a couple of times, it's awful, I hope it folds. You don't know it or use it to your advantage

I think this thread proves otherwise. Many people use it for many different reasons

Thanks @Roussette!

No, not relevant to me at all. I spent about 6 months on there and found very very few members had anything even close to the values and opinions that I would consider similar to mine. It's like an echo chamber.

Completely agree with all of this. There's no other social media platform like it. My work straddles a few different fields and I love that I'm not limited to specific genres or topics: I can follow people from all over the world, from a thousand different groups (artists, archaeologists, musicians, politicians); I can read a myriad different opinions on the same subject.

It's been invaluable to me during COVID, or to find out more about the US Mid-term elections, or what #BlackTwitter thinks about Musk's takeover. It will probably limit my work opportunities too if it goes pop.

On a personal level, Twitter is where I feel most truly myself on social media.

I have used it a lot to connect with people around the world who are in a similar niche occupation to me, and to follow large organisations.

Many of the people in similar occupation have already set up Mastodon accounts. Remains to be seen whether the organisations/brands do likewise. But there was a time where users of sites like MySpace or Bebo probably couldn't imagine life without them either.

If you use Twitter for a specific community of practice, it's worth checking out Mastodon.

The thing is about Mastodon - its very new. Lots of individuals in my (genealogy) community have set up accounts. Which is great.

But most of the other organisations I follow have not - places like the National Archives, Ellis Island, local family history societies, local Councils, etc etc etc. So Mastodon has a different sort of feel to it at present.