I will doubtless have more to say on the subject in the days to come, but I’m watching my relationship with the thing called Twitter change and I’d like to offer a few words and images. I hopped on years ago as a way of heeding the counsel of my literary agent. By securing “@DavidDark” early, I was given to understand that I’d have one more platform for marketing my content. This was true.
David, your voice on Twitter was one of the few that kept me around. Alas, for me the negatives have begun to outweigh the positives. I’ve cancelled my Twitter account, with mixed feelings.
Twitter is dying. Even before Musk the algorithms were ruining it. The algorithms amplify outrage to maximize engagement. Now that Musk has taken over it's clear that he has no idea what he's doing. It seems likely that his free speech "absolutism" is going to turn into 4chan - a very unpleasant space full of racist, mysogynist trolls. His recent retweeting of conspiracy theories and tweets urging people to vote Republican only confirm this. I deleted my Twitter account back in May after being on 14 years. It's been good for my mental health.
Consider Mastodon as an alternative: no algorithms amplifying rage there. It's not commercial. Overall my experience there has been much more pleasant. Initially there weren't many people there that I followed on Twitter, but over the last couple of weeks that's begun to change rapidly as people are escaping Twitter in large numbers.
Brother David, this got an audible Amen/high-fiving-a-million-angels from me. And I shared it. #amplify to #testify Thank you for using your voice for so much good.
David, your voice on Twitter was one of the few that kept me around. Alas, for me the negatives have begun to outweigh the positives. I’ve cancelled my Twitter account, with mixed feelings.
Twitter is dying. Even before Musk the algorithms were ruining it. The algorithms amplify outrage to maximize engagement. Now that Musk has taken over it's clear that he has no idea what he's doing. It seems likely that his free speech "absolutism" is going to turn into 4chan - a very unpleasant space full of racist, mysogynist trolls. His recent retweeting of conspiracy theories and tweets urging people to vote Republican only confirm this. I deleted my Twitter account back in May after being on 14 years. It's been good for my mental health.
Consider Mastodon as an alternative: no algorithms amplifying rage there. It's not commercial. Overall my experience there has been much more pleasant. Initially there weren't many people there that I followed on Twitter, but over the last couple of weeks that's begun to change rapidly as people are escaping Twitter in large numbers.
Brother David, this got an audible Amen/high-fiving-a-million-angels from me. And I shared it. #amplify to #testify Thank you for using your voice for so much good.