The existence of Twitter has always been a looming presence in the back of my mind, but now I wish it wasn’t.
Luckily, I didn’t join the community of trolls and keyboard warriors until my teenage years. I dodged the cliche sexual awakening of stumbling into the wrong side of the blue bird.
Despite my luck, I fell into the bird’s clutches as many do in the age of social media and phone obsession.
I joined the platform in 2019, but I’ve long lost my username and password, which goes to show how much I used it.
Twitter was the black hole I’d hurl myself into when I wanted to wallow in existential crises and dread.
After hearing about Elon Musk’s acquisition of the platform, I couldn’t resist firing up the app once more.
I signed my self respect and dignity away after I agreed to their Terms of Service. I sleuthed around for two minutes and regretted it.
Thank you Elon Musk for forcing me to reduce my screen time.
If Twitter were to have a tombstone, the death date would be April 14, 2022, when Musk first acquired it.
This downfall progressed in Nov. 2022, with the verification subscription program called X Premium. Musk released a subscription feature for account holders to pay for a blue checkmark to be a verified account.
Within 48 hours, the Twitter trolls wreaked enough havoc to have the verification system revised.
A verified account impersonating the pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly and Co. posted the tweet, “we are excited to announce that insulin is free now” on Nov. 10, 2022 according to a Nov. 11, 2022 article from The Independent.
According to the same article, Eli Lilly and Co.’s stock fell 2.2% after the tweet was published. This company is one of the largest producers of insulin in the U.S., so with the potential loss of profit from the drug, many shareholders sold their stock.
The ability to take down big pharma for only $8 a month? Not bad, Musk. The whole verification change was an egotistical rampage from Musk that has plagued the company.
In my mind, Twitter was already the platform for amateur porn stars, keyboard warriors and trolls but now radical social justice is on that list too.
I absolutely disagree with some of the mechanisms of big pharma, but a takedown by the means of a fake Twitter profile? That’s just too much.
The verification symbol was designed to let people know that accounts were trustworthy and that the person behind the screen was who they claimed to be. The ability to purchase this little check mark threw that trust into the void.
Misinformation is already a rampant issue on social media platforms. By allowing random impersonation accounts to be verified, Twitter created an environment where their users were at risk. This misinformation can lead users to base decisions about their health and finances on lies. These repercussions are immeasurable and honestly terrifying.
As a journalist, my entire reputation and career is based on trust. I make mistakes, but I never intentionally mislead my audience. That’s what I found so disturbing about Musk’s verification subscription, anyone can easily deceive the general public. It’s no longer a source journalists can trust for updating the public.
Media literacy has changed the landscape of differentiating between reliable and unreliable sources. Journalists like me have been deciphering the reliability of sources for decades, but the general public hasn’t. Not every Twitter user can be expected to hold such skills, especially when they’re mindlessly scrolling on a media platform that was supposed to have already done that for them.
According to Oxford Languages, media literacy is “the ability to critically analyze stories presented in the mass media and to determine their accuracy or credibility.” With this new age of mass media, media literacy is slowly becoming a teachable and valuable skill.
This issue has destroyed any credibility and public trust a brand or account might have held on Twitter. Everyone and everything on the site is now suspect to me. I don’t recognize or trust Twitter anymore.
Brand recognition is another aspect that builds trust. Twitter has been around for almost two decades. The little blue bird was used in infographics, marketing campaigns, the word “tweet” even became a verb for posting on the site.
As of July 23, we now have X. One of the quickest ways to kill a brand is to change the name and logo simultaneously. Musk did exactly that.
Now, instead of the logo I recognize and love, I’m greeted with a stark X with a black, scratched up background of a logo that looks like it was designed by an edgy 15 year old who just discovered VSCO.
I don’t know if I can still call the app Twitter, or say “my favorite artist just tweeted!”
I guess I have to start saying “did you see that X from Elon Musk?” Yikes.
I find it fitting that the platform is now called X though, since Twitter is dead in my eyes.
It seems the city of San Francisco doesn’t appreciate the new X either. Musk’s X sign located atop the company’s headquarters building on Market St. cost over $4,000 in fines according to an Aug. 4 article from the San Francisco Chronicle. The sign was erected and removed in the span of four days, according to the same article.
It seems that the company is allowing Musk to make one bad decision after another. I question the process that the X boardroom might go through every day. I imagine it’s just a room full of caffeine-fueled ex-frat boys making rash decisions because the bros finally have some power to throw around.
One thing the company seemed to not have changed is the look of the application on mobile apps. The color scheme is still primarily white and blue, so I struggle to understand why it went through all of the trouble to create a new subpar logo to not carry the theme through the entire app.
It seems to align with the company motto: poor branding.
I’m happy to still see the iconic Twitter blue, but the new logo taunts me from the top of my screen.
I’m also not the only person who’s unhappy with all of these changes.
According to a Dec. 13 2022 article from The Guardian, the platform was projected to lose 32 million followers over two years in the wake of Musk’s acquisition.
Advertisers don’t like Musk’s little rebrand either. According to a July 17 article from BBC, Twitter experienced a 50% decrease in ad revenue since Musk took over.
I don’t blame the advertising companies though. I wouldn’t want my ads to be associated with a platform experiencing the tech equivalent of a mid-life crisis.
With the death of Twitter and the introduction of its ugly stepsister, I will continue my doom scroll on a different social media site. Until Musk takes over that one too, then I’ll complain all over again.
Elon Musk’s oversized and unjustified ego has killed this platform. I eagerly await the downfall of the rest of his companies.
Goodbye Twitter, your sweet little blue bird logo and reign of hilarious terror will be dearly missed.
