Twitter is officially 20 years old. In another reality, it might make me somewhat nostalgic. I’ve been secretly scrolling and tweeting for 16 years; Most of my adult life. There was a time when Twitter was a place where some Internet stranger would become my IRL friends, when I was excited to “live-tweet.” When my best friends would send me memes, I’d casually say “I saw this on Twitter a few days ago.”
Twitter has taken that place a long time ago, but I have no nostalgia for it. Actually, I don’t feel anything.
Because I can already hear the comments: Yes, I’m still on X. I don’t spend as much time there as I did a decade ago, but there’s still plenty of time, and Sick Rashi, if I’m honest. My job is to report on social media companies, so I keep scrolling. That’s what I tell myself anyway.
Some of my favorite posters are still around. The drill’s still got it. Memes are still, occasionally, good, even if X’s recommendation algorithm points me toward endless AI slop, boring hot takes and blatant engagement from thirsty mid-level tech executives. The algorithm of The same Holocaust-loving grok who has spewed racism and referred to himself as MechaHitler and declared Elon Musk “the greatest man in modern history.” The same grok that allegedly generated thousands of images of child abuse material. Hey @grok is this true?
X is not Twitter but it is not Twitter either. Last year, an online marketplace startup bought a 560-pound Twitter bird that once adorned the company’s San Francisco office and flew it in the Nevada desert surrounded by Tesla Cybertrucks as part of an elaborate publicity stunt. Dumb? Yes. But it’s also somehow a fitting farewell for “Larry.”
It’s been 20 years since Jack Dorsey sent his first tweet, which was never a good tweet anyway. Well, it’s been five years since he turned that tweet into an NFT (remember NFTs??) and auctioned it off for nearly $3 million. It is now functionally useless. Another chapter in Dorsey’s confusing, complicated legacy.
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