Why are you still on Twitter?

I asked my 52,000 followers why they're sticking around. Here's what they had to say.

I haven’t completely given up on Twitter, but I’ve cut back the time and attention I pay there by roughly 98%.

Since November, I’ve deleted most of my Twitter history and locked my account for a month or so. During that time I’ve tweeted just a handful of times.

And I’m not alone, apparently. earlier this week, I posted this on Twitter:

When I read the replies carefully, it was easy to spot some common threads. Broadly speaking, I heard from two camps. Let’s call them Remain and Leave

The Remain group, representing a slight majority, consists of people who are still on Twitter because the people and communities they follow are still there and conversations are still happening. Twitter’s network effect is powerful indeed, especially when coupled with inertia and more than a decade of habits from longtime Twitter users.

This reply from Louis Maresca summed up many of the replies from other members of the Remain camp. Why is he still on Twitter?

Critical Mass. Diverse points of view and conversations. Large community. It only makes a point if the right people leave in masses. At this point, it hasn't made a dent. I get comfort in the ability to say I don’t like and agree with how things are going, and people hear me.

Twitter is also the place where people go to discuss sports, as several followers reminded me, and it’s also the place where they catch up on breaking news.

The second group, Leave, has cut way back on Twitter. In general, they report being disappointed in what they find when they do visit. Here are a few representative responses:

Elaina McCartney:

I deactivated for a month. I returned for legal experts I follow. But my feed is broken, full of ads for junk that I block, and I have to manually search for the main accounts I follow. There are a lot more trashy bots with a few followers who create fake trends for suckers.

LoneWolf:

I have cut my use by 2/3 and have joined Mastodon. I’ve also tailored what is left to remove ugliness and even outrage. My life is far healthier with far less Twitter.

Cassandra Curates Calamity:

It’s just less interesting so I am in way less. Maybe people I follow left or or ones here use it differently lately. As someone who barely posts, I actually paid for Twitter blue pre Elon for the article lists. But no way now.

A minority opinion argues for managing Twitter. Create your own bubble!

InOrOut:

Twitter is a series of silos. Choose your silos well.

Martina Grom answers the question: “Have you considered leaving?”

No. My bubble is still fine.

After three full months away from Twitter, I can report that I have occasional twinges of nostalgia, but no regret about ending my investment in Elon Musk’s version of Twitter.

The new For You algorithm, which seems to be the default now, is a firehose of outrage and clickbait, and the decision to kill the Twitter API without even notifying the third-party developers who invested so heavily in it is vintage Elon sociopathy. Restoring the Twitter accounts of actual Nazis is … what’s the word I’m looking for? Unacceptable will have to do.

And I’m done with all that.

I’ll continue to use Twitter as a way to notify followers that I have new content (published elsewhere) that they might be interested in. I will scan the Twitter feeds for the return of @darth after his latest hibernation. I will scroll through some of my Twitter lists every so often just to see if I’ve missed anything.

But other than that, Twitter is pretty much dead to me.

Meanwhile, I admire the optimism of Jon C:

Status: Just hoping against hope Elon gets bored or is forced to leave and someone less vile takes over.

It could happen!