Leaving X/Twitter? If you’re making the break, take time to mourn the X/Twitter you knew and loved, then move on. Time for something new, something better.
Where do you draw the line? This is a question worth asking yourself periodically, about many aspects of your life. Once your own personal line has been crossed, it is usually the best policy to move on. It could be a friendship or other personal relationship that is no longer what it was. It might be a work environment that is no longer conducive to your mental or physical health or has become toxic. Or it might be a social medium that it would seem for many is both no longer what it was and which has become toxic.
The last few weeks have seen large numbers of people choose to end their relationship with Twitter. My Threads ‘For you’ feed has served a constant stream of new faces whose first post declares that Twitter (or, if you must, X) is no longer for them. Time for something new, something better. It is pleasing to see how many of these folk seeking a less a less toxic ‘town square’ to hang out in seem to be finding their initial Threads experience and interactions agreeable.
Each of these souls would seem to believe that their own personal line has been crossed. The crossing of their personal lines is usually intertwined with how X/Twitter has changed since Elon Musk took over. For many, it is the amplification of extremist voices and the spread of misinformation seeking to foment hatred, division and chaos. For some in the UK, Musk’s words and actions on the recent wave of violent disorder from far-right groups were too much to bear. My friend Sukhvinder Pabial has written an excellent and comprehensive analysis of Musk’s claim that he sees civil war in the UK as “inevitable,” Sukh says:
“These are not the words of a smart, intelligent or responsible high profile social media company owner.”
Quite.
Surviving Twitter
Making a decision to move on is one thing. Dealing with the feelings that such a decision can create is another.
X/Twitter has meant so much to so many souls that it is only natural that its sudden absence might leave a void. It might even give rise to feelings akin to grief.
I decided to stop posting on X/Twitter on 31 December 2023. I have not yet deleted my account. My thinking is that three years ago the current dismal state of Twitter would have been hard to imagine. It is therefore possible that in three years’ time it could have changed beyond all recognition once again – perhaps even towards the good. I must say, though, that any positive outcome now feels improbable, and likely impossible.
Twitter meant so much to me for over a decade. I created my account in January 2009 out of sheer curiosity, with no expectations or idea of what might come from it. In a surprising and organic way, I found a lovely and wide-ranging community on there, and made real, lasting friendships with some of the loveliest souls it has ever been my privilege to meet. I am pleased and proud to say that these friendships endure to this day. These friendships have made the transition away from the social medium that helped birth them. They have survived Twitter.
The decline of my Twitter experience was a gradual one over a year or so. I had a distinctly queasy feeling when Elon Musk took over. A sense that things would not work out well. As the Musk era got underway, the freewheeling conversational aspect of Twitter that I had loved seemed slowly to evaporate. I felt saddened and somewhat lost by the drying up of what had been a fertile ground for conversation and debate, and for the wonderfully random or silly.
But as with so many things, it got easier with time. By the time I gave up tweeting at the end of last year, I had finished mourning the Twitter I knew. I had survived Twitter.
For me – and, it would seem, for so many others – the Elon Musk era of Twitter has broken the spell. If there is anything positive in this, it is that the spell has been broken so comprehensively for so many that there is no going back.
Time for something new, something better.
X/Twitter alternatives
What comes after the break from X/Twitter?
You might well have decided that social media is no longer for you. No-one would blame you.
If you are looking for an X/Twitter alternative, there would seem to be three main contenders at present: Threads, Bluesky, and Mastodon. None of them offers an identical experience to Twitter at its best. But each has much to commend it.
In very short summary:
Threads. Threads has been around for just over a year, and seems to be really taking off just now, due to what has been dubbed the current “X-odus” from a certain other social medium. I have been on Threads since day one, and find it to be a vibrant and positive place to chat and hang out. Some might have (entirely justified) concerns about joining a social medium owned by Meta. For such folks, the great Alex Winter recently posted the following words:
“For folks asking what’s the difference between one platform owned by a problematic billionaire and another. This [Rolling Stone thread entitled “How Elon Musk and X Became the Biggest Purveyors of Online Misinformation“] concisely explains why Elon and X are a distinct menace that should be shunned. […] This isn’t to absolve Zuck of the terrible things that Meta has been responsible for, from the Cambridge Analytica scandal to their contribution to genocide in Myanmar, but to make the point that this platform is substantially and substantively safer than X at the present moment.”
Bluesky. From some of the folks who brought you the original Twitter, Bluesky offers the best user experience as a platform (like an improved version of Twitter when it was actually good), and it is gradually gaining traction in terms of the amount of users and conversation. My friend Sean Jones posted some thought-provoking questions on BlueSky just the other day:
“Is @bsky.app a viable Twitter alternative? Of course. It does well what Twitter does well and does many other things better. But I understand why we ask. What we mean is: Is a non-Twitter version of ourselves viable? Or are we permanently addicted to messy drama and ragebait? Can we change? Hope so.”
Mastodon. This is a great, friendly little platform, and one I’ve been on for years. If you’d like to read more about it, I wrote a post entitled Mastodon FAQ: Toot sweet? (from November 2022, at the time of what was termed the “Twexodus”, as many users bailed from Twitter at the advent of the Musk era).
Once your own personal line has been crossed, it is usually the best policy to move on. If you have made or are about to make the break, remember that it’s OK to take the time you need to mourn the X/Twitter you knew and loved. As with so many things, it does and will get easier with time.
I fully believe that we can and will build something better than what came before.
Should you be checking out the X/Twitter alternatives, you can find me on Threads, BlueSky, and Mastodon. Please do consider stopping by to say hello.
May you be nothing but kind today, to others and to yourself.
May today be nothing but kind to you and yours.
IMAGE
- Red-blue sunset via Wikimedia Commons.
- Sunset hdr via Wikimedia Commons.
- Wassily Kandinsky – Sky Blue, 1940 via Wikimedia Commons(and flipped on its side by MJCarty).
MJCarty 
