Formerly Twitter, Formerly Happy
Let’s rewind a little over a year. I used to be quite active on social media, with around 850+ followers on my platform of choice, Twitter. I had been using Twitter for over a decade, spending around 5–6 hours on it most days. It was a unique platform that combined personal development, community, and slightly impersonal interactions in one place. While all social platforms have these traits, I found Twitter to be the best.
But then X happened.
No, I’m not referring to Elon Musk buying the platform or whoever funded it for him. Things started getting uncertain, with changes happening almost daily. I wondered if the platform would suddenly shut down and never come back. I enjoyed having Twitter and being a part of the ecosystem of startups and solo developers, sharing about issues and business growth. It was a great platform if you knew what to look for.
For a while, it remained my go-to place. After years of active use, quitting cold turkey wasn’t an option. I attempted to quit several times after Elon took over. However, as the issues started piling up, the inability to report anything, and witnessing violent videos multiple times, I finally reached my breaking point when the iOS app logo changed to an X.
I initially disliked the new logo, so I removed the app from my home page on my phone. I didn’t want to pay to change my logo, and the muscle memory led me to open Flipboard (Put that app in the place Twitter was) instead, where I started reading articles more frequently. This worked for a couple of days. Then a few more days went by, and then a week.
Looking back, I realized that the app’s user interface never really changed, and I was clinging to the idea of the Twitter I once loved. However, when the icon changed, it was like a wake-up call that this app had transformed.
Currently, I haven’t deleted the app or my account. I’ve logged back in a few times in the last 10 months, but only to check in on the people I left behind. There have been other platforms that attempted to replace Twitter, but I have yet to find a viable solution.
Am I better off now? Yes, because Twitter used to consume a significant amount of my time and became a mentally challenging place. But also no, because I miss the community of people building things, being part of something, learning and releasing new things.
If anyone has suggestions for a new platform, I would greatly appreciate it.
As a side note, whenever I see articles that say X(Formerly Twitter) it actually cuts deeper than just the name knowing what it use to be.
