Can we talk about Twitter?

I have an account
Had it a couple years
I don’t use it at all
Not noticed, don’t care, don’t use the platform.
No reason to delete. Cyber security experts would urge you to sign up and claim your name on social media accounts regardless if you use them or not.

I’ve had an account since 2008. I don’t remember why I signed up, but I was able to grab a sleeper user handle: aybabtu, so that was surely one reason. I remember a stupid promotional video they released talking about how Twitter was for all the moments between Facebook posts.

The one time I got active on Twitter was when there was a funny thread going about Sarah Palin in the run up to the election. It was something like: “True fact: Sarah Palin…”

These days, I use it when there’s a video posted from it on reddit. So with that recent B-17 air show crash, I first watched it on Twitter after following a reddit link.

So the account mainly sits there because I have a semi-cool handle.

Do you have an account?
Yes

How long have you had your account?
Since 2008

How much time do you spend on the platform?
May half an hour a week

Have you noticed a change since Musk took the helm?
No

Are you definitely staying, or are you thinking of deleting your account?
Staying I use it for aggregating news, I follow several newspapers.

”Do you have an account?”
– Yes.

”How long have you had your account?”
– Since a few months ago.

”How much time do you spend on the platform?”
– Usually zero. I only used it for rare work and research needs, and to post a couple of random opinions which probably zero people ever saw.

”Have you noticed a change since Musk took the helm?”
– I don’t think I’ve visited Twitter since then. Oh, I tried to follow some link, but it’d already been deleted. I have read many hilarious and terrible things (and examples of Twitter posts) about Twitter since Musk, on other sites.
– So I’ve mainly noticed the news of Musk’s insanity/idiocy/childishness/tyranny, and the hilarious responses to his ludicrous $8 “verification” anti-feature, with many very on-point “verified” imposter accounts posting things like Proctor & Gamble saying insulin is now free for everyone, going unstoppably viral, and Chiquita declaring that they have taken over the government of Brazil, “verified” fake accounts of people confessing to things, etc.

”Are you definitely staying, or are you thinking of deleting your account?”
– I barely have an account, and I’ve almost decided to delete it, even though I don’t use it and it’d just mean more work for me to create a new nothingburger account if/when I even feel a reason to look at something on Twitter.

I have always have great contempt for Twitter, and dislike almost everything about it. My favorite thing about it has always been the parody/prank/critical accounts bothering deserving corporations, celebrities, and politicians, and the occasional positive/worthwhile content getting attention there.

I had a twitter account for about 12 years. I deactivated it on November 5 because of all the vitriol.

I use to check it about once a day, but mostly used it to open links from other media such as Buzzfeed.

I’ve had an account for about a decade. I spend very little time on Twitter. I pretty much use it exclusively to follow Mac and iOS programmers to see when they post blog articles or give lectures. I haven’t been on since Musk took over. I’m not in a rush to bail on it. I don’t use it to get in flame wars with strangers posting responses to celebrities. I think if that’s what people want out of it, then I’m sure some will love/hate Elon’s changes.

I have an account.

I’ve had it over ten years.

I use Twitter about three times a year. Sometimes it’s two days in a row for an hour each, and then not again for five months. I never could get used to the platform. I’m basically a klutz on it.

I haven’t been on Twitter since Musk took over.

I intend to keep an account for the rare times I want to log in.

If I become convinced Musk truly is giving WS a platform in a purposeful effort to proliferate their trash then I might reconsider. For now, I’m waiting to see. I’m still on Facebook and for a long time Facebook allowed a ton of horrible memes and lies, and I realize they can’t find everything, but I think they could have done much more sooner.

I have Twitter and use it professionally (to build my professional network, share current programs and research within my areas of expertise, and promote my own publications and work). In addition, I have built a network of autistic and disabled/long COVID folks (to share recent studies and feel a part of a community of peers). I spend maybe a few hours a week on twitter. Finally, my adult kid sends me tweets (and TikToks), which helps me to feel close to him.

Since EM, I have thought daily about leaving. If I can’t determine the validity of a source with ease, the platform has limited utility for me. And I cannot support a platform full of hate speech. To be honest, though, I really love the happy little place I’ve carved out on twitter and would feel a void if I left.

I am undecided about what to do, but stay for now (albeit probably for less time than pre-EM).

I have a twitter account. I find the tsuris amusing and since I hate Elon it’s kind of fun to see him struggle like this. But my behavior and use of Twitter has not changed one iota. However, I do know a lot of people like @Cupcake who rely on Twitter as a professional network so I worry for them. I do not.

This meme illustrates some of what I was talking about.

And 5omeWhiteGuy’s comment there: “My favorite part of everyone trying to get banned from new twitter is the complete disregard for the fact everyone IS TRYING TO GET BANNeD”

I’ve had a twitter account for at least 10 years, at most I use it maybe 1x a week to check news stories. I don’t really follow individual people, just local police departments & news stations. The only change I’ve noticed on twitter is people complaining about Elon &/or announcing that they were leaving the platform.
“He’s allowing hate speech again from white supremacists” He just bought it so, no he’s not allowing it to happen again. What makes you think he’s allowing it at all?

I just deleted both of my Twitter accounts. Elon Musk is a narcissist and an idiotic manager. I didn’t use the app enough to care about the connections, but I am repulsed by his demand that the employees act like slaves.

The slaves @Hawaii_Jake have left the building . . . .

He can’t run it !

A conservative acquaintance of mine just posted on Facebook that she signed up with Twitter again, and several people under her status said they are using it again too. My guess is they dropped off of Twitter when Trump was banned.

Seems there will be people leaving and people adding accounts. Who knows what the bet effect will be.

@JLeslie That’s not surprising. Social media has been very hostile to conservatives of any kind for quite a while and they don’t currently have a platform. I can tell you what will happen though, it’ll become troll infested and toxic quickly if Elon does not take measures to curtail it. That’s the lingering question I have. This is something he must do. He can handle employees, he is already weeding out the people he does not want working for him.

I’ll still keep my twitter account until the bitter end. It’s basically how I communicate with my astronomy friends.

@Blackwater_Park I myself have videos and photos sometimes put on hold on Facebook and I’m not posting right-wing lies. Conservatives probably think their opinions are being censored, but It’s really inflammatory lies AND memes, verbiage, or videos that trip a setting to detect problems. It also is programmed to try to trace back to sources, and if the source is under suspicion it might get sent for review.

I’m the admin for a covid Facebook group and no politics are allowed so I have trigger words set up like Biden, DeSantis, and Trump. When someone types any of those I get sent an alert. It is not forbidden to use those names in the group. What’s forbidden is discussing politics. I get sent the alert and I review what was posted.

It’s like when Black women tell me they have to straighten their hair and spend a lot of money on their hair, I had to perm my hair when I was younger to be in style. I would spend 30 minutes doing my hair in the morning, and expensive lotions and potions and sprays and hair dye and highlights. More recent years I spent many hundreds on extensions to make my hair fuller. They think white girls roll out of bed with their hair perfect. Some do have great hair, but a lot of us have thin, knotty, easily ratty, cotton candy, fly away hair. I’m not diminishing the pressure they feel to spend a lot of money on their hair, I’m saying, if they assume we don’t spend a lot too, that’s a bad assumption, just like assuming liberals don’t ever get a meme zapped on Facebook.

@Hawaii_Jake “His demand that employees act like slaves”….Slaves making 90k-200k a year.

For 4000 to 6000 hours a year. . . . $15 to $33 an hour @cheebdragon !

@Tropical_Willie Most employees working for Musk get paid time and a half for overtime. While there is still little work-life balance, they’re not slaves. Slaves can’t quit.

@Blackwater_Park That’s not true, most Twitter employees are exempt, they are not hourly workers. That is why he can say “everyone work 80 hour weeks” without running afoul of labor laws.

“Twitter pays an average salary of $146,546 per year, which is $70.45 an hour. Twitter pays those in the bottom 10 percent $106,000 a year, and the top 10 percent over $201,000.”

https://youtu.be/hh9t3pEUCes

If Twitter pays an average 106k per year to salaried workers, they don’t get overtime. Saying they’re making $x per hour would be based on a 40 hour work week. If they’re working a “ramped up” number of hours, the breakdown of their annual salary is going to be way less per hour.

You can make a lot of money and still be worked like a slave. I have no idea what demands Musk is putting on his employees, but I know my husband was making well over $100k at one of his jobs and they were working him from 8:30am to 11:00pm for weeks on end. Thankfully he got out of that job quickly. That’s abusive and total bullshit. A day here and there I can understand.

I used to work shit hours to exhaustion in retail making $30—$50k (years ago) and I’m pretty sure it shortened my life.

I would not work for Musk, but his employees are not slaves. They can quit and they should if they’re being overworked. That said, yes it’s true Twitter is going to have a good number of “exempt” employees but his other companies like Tesla has plenty of hourly workers and they do get paid overtime.
I used to work 60+ hours a week and outside of an emergency now, you won’t see me work past 40.

Well, yeah, “slaves” is always going to be an exaggeration. Save that for the illegal immigrants picking tomatoes in the fields (fun thing about California is you can find both within a short driving distance of each other!)

I think a lot of these companies are bloated in terms of their workforce (especially with the pandemic work-from-home hiring), but it seems clear that Musk may have cleaved off too much and he can’t simply ask the remaining staff to double their hours to make up for fired employees. I don’t buy that Musk is deliberately driving the company into the ground (though I wouldn’t care if he did) but it’s interesting to see it fall this fast. Bankruptcy might be on the horizon.

I think I opened my Twitter account the year it became a thing you could download in the app store, but I didn’t really start using it in earnest until a few years later.

I’m on Twitter probably like 30 minutes to an hour a day because I participate in fandoms, and Twitter really is the best place to find and distribute media from other sites.

Honestly, if you know how to navigate the site you can avoid 95% of what you don’t want to see. I haven’t noticed a difference at all. Muskrat (the kids are weird) did say in the beginning that he wanted to shut down the fan accounts but we’ll see. Fandom in general is probably one of the groups most dedicated to the platform.