Why I can't quit Twitter, yet
Alison Pegg
Rihanna’s halftime show. The Grammy’s hip hop tribute. Damar Hamlin’s injury on a Monday night. The White Lotus finale.
During cultural moments like these, Twitter is still the place I want to be while witnessing the action live.
No other social media platform has yet to provide a live, second screen experience the rivals twitter, especially during live sporting events.
Watching news and commentary live is 100% what keeps me on the bird app. The sense of community it provides during cultural moments that we’re all watching collectively makes it special. The live news stream is like a colour commentator watching along side us. Being on Twitter during live events is like watching television with all your most interesting friends in the same room. Or attending a lecture of a mentor or creator you’ve always wanted to hear speak.
This sense of community twitter fosters is why what’s happening to the rest of it is so sad. :(
Feeling the same. Still seeing real time tweets but the 2nd screen behavior hasn’t been there for monoculture moments for a while.
— Michael J. Miraflor (@michaelmiraflor) February 6, 2023
Super Bowl might be the exception? https://t.co/1dz7YvHm3B
To be crystal clear, hate speech should never tolerated, online or off. And the proliferation of it on my favourite platform is disgusting. Likewise, the bots, the fakes, the “who knows what else is being created” by evil people (governments or not), is also really, really concerning. In a world where trust and truth are hard to come by, these bad actors are trying to flood our town halls with evil to keep us from congregating.
And sadly, it seems to be working. During live events our timelines are being sucked of relevant tweets to join the conversation. Even sadder, lately it seems some of my well-curated sports timeline has just moved along from the app all together. And don’t get me started on the “For You” tab. It’s so disappointing to watch Twitter let “the algorithm” curate our feeds based on engagement, instead of in real time like we’ve all come to love.
So hey Twitter, could you maybe clean up your act just a smidge? We all just want our online water cooler back so we can hang out again.