What’s the use of 140 characters?

I recently logged onto X, to discover it was my fourteenth anniversary of being on what was Twitter when I joined.

It’s been a journey, from the days when I had to explain what the purpose and advantages of ‘microblogging’ were to my colleagues, to today’s Elon Musk vanity project.

When I joined Twitter, it was fun. It was full of people I knew, people I would later know, and people I would love to know – Stephen Fry was everyone’s favourite follow. It was a sandbox of experimentation that has spawned new forms of poetry – Brian Bilston, I’m looking at you – created fantastic niche communities, and was the fastest place to get news, whether global or hyperlocal.

Twitter matured into a place that companies could use to share their messages. KFC brilliantly followed only 5 former spice girls and 6 men called Herb. The Museum of English Rural Life went accidentally viral tweeting about an ‘absolute unit’ of a sheep. It was entertaining, light-hearted and a place to be seen. And it was where all the journalists were.  

Then something happened. The tone changed, and while the communities were still there, still getting nerdy about some really great stuff, there was also a lot of low level anger. It could have been the Trump effect, but the algorithm seemed to exacerbate it. I found myself spending more time on Instagram, where lots of my friends had also drifted, enjoying that it was, on the whole, a prettier, more positive place. That too has become more corporate, as people tightened their circles of online friends and spent more time scrolling for interior design tips and cat/dog/panda based content.

In the meantime, Linkedin has finally matured. It seems to have sorted out its UI, and jobseekers, freelancers and professionals alike have embraced its work related focus, slower pace and fantastically useful address book of everyone you have ever worked with.

With Elon Musk at the helm, X seems to have lost its way, With Facebooks constant tinkering of the algorithm, the communities that were there seem to also be fading away into the comments and DMs leaving businesses to own the grid. So what’s the future? What about you, where is your digital community? Have you joined Mastadon? Or Threads? Do you operate mainly through a web of Slack channels and Wattsapp groups? Is Strava your virtual golf course?  What’s your current favourite social media? Why don’t you message me on my Insta or Linked in?