Post-Twitter, there's Post

I've been on Twitter for a long time. Next month will make 15 years. It's a great place to go for breaking news, but an even better place to go for a good laugh.

That said, it was a lot better 10 years ago. Originally, you picked the accounts you wanted to follow, and that's all you saw. In reverse chronological order. No filters, no algorithms. And for a long time, they were having trouble selling ads, so you didn't have to keep jumping over those, either.

Those days are long gone now. About every fifth post you see nowadays is an ad, and there are new algorithms that heavily influence what you see and don't see. The people who pay get better play than the people who don't. And with Mr. Colossal Jerk Billionaire now owning and running the show, what you see is more right-wing and less reliable every day.

A lot of people are running for the exits, including some excellent accounts that were worth coming to Twitter for. The heavy hand of the new owner has been a supreme turnoff.

It's a real loss for everyone who uses Twitter, and some see it as confirming the death of social media as we've known it. It's not really "social" any more – it's become more like the early stages of a chat board hosted by Fox News. 

I'll stay with the tweets until the site becomes absolutely intolerable, but it's definitely past time for bird users to be looking elsewhere. I'm signed up on Post, and it's been pretty good so far. I'm also on Mastodon and Tribel, but keeping up with all of them is way too much effort, and they aren't Twitter, by a long shot. I hope Post thrives and eventually salvages some of what's being lost. When Twitter was good, it was very, very good.