thoughts on the dissolution of twitter and digital ghosts
As we spiral into the depths of the world wide web with reckless abandon, searching for friendship and meaning and connection as the very servers we use to connect crash and burn, it’s a wonder what social media will the masses congregate to next?
Is a massive platform of collective thought the way of the future, or will it be segmented into pockets and niches, private group chats and discord servers, where you have to be in the know to even find your community.
the wildest thing about switching back to tumblr is like,,, I use microblogging as a journal for my shower thoughts throughout the day but when i used tumblr in the past it was always on my laptop, never the phone app, and i used it like pinterest. It was never the social aspect of connecting with friends but rather more like reddit where you talk to fun internet strangers about shared interests. I don’t know how i’ll use this space yet. It might be more journaling and personality than twitter, or i might forget it exists all together. And my twitter was never professional but this will be even less so.
Either way, beginning to work in Social apps is a dream come true, watching all these features and companies crash and burn is such a learning experience, and seeing what people like and continue using regardless, it’s wild.
At what point did i stop using snap and tumblr and switch to twitter and tiktok. And instagram has always just been there too. As facebook slowly decays like the new orleans six flags, memories of fun with friends now haunted by boomer parents and jan 6 conspiracies, I want some platform to cling to in this digital realm.
Removing data from these sites and erasing my existence doesn’t remove the memories of friends i’ll never see again simply because i don’t know their username on other sites. I poured HOURS into twitter, during the pandemic it was probably 12-16 hours daily. I quit, it was a mess. My algorithm never recovered, and I missed out on my digital friends lives. The same friends I chatted away the days with on clubhouse and rodeo are now ghosts, the data is there but the users are away from the keyboard, touching grass and living their best lives. I miss them but am happy for them.
Let us venture onward, into the unknown future. Enrapture ourselves in the digital world, non-binary flowing through the binary, sending love in longform text built from 0s and 1s, xoxo from me to you 🖤✨
Where will we go next?