Why We’re Still Trapped on Twitter 

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Fun fact about Prince, he changed his named to a symbol to break free from labels that owned anything he created as "Prince", so he changed his name to a symbol and started producing music independently without having to pay dividends to the record label that was trying to control him creatively. It's actually a dope story and makes Prince even more punk rock than I ever knew

The metaphor I most like for people staying on Twitter is "I can't leave this quicksand, it's where all my friends are drowning!"

The thing is, when Twitter says they've only lost 5% of their users, they're only counting deleted accounts. I didn't delete my account I just stopped using it.

One of the better unintended consequences of them changing the logo and name of Twitter is that now when my lizard brain gets the urge to check Twitter, it forgets that the little blue birdy isn't there anymore and assumes I just don't have that app anymore and I carry on with my day. The branding change has actively made me less likely to use the app

I'm 1 of the 5% and don't miss Twitter at all. Twitter is the equivalent of always going to a place you don't like, to interact with people you rather wouldn't, and actively damage your mental health. We already have X-Mas/Thanksgiving dinners for just this scenario. I don't need it in my life daily.

Twitter for years punched above its weight as a social media hub specifically because it became the preferred social media for journalists, comics, celebrities and politicians. The groups that really need that extended reach. Unfortunately those groups have grown too dependent on that infrastructure and can't quit.

The greatest trick Twitter pulled was convincing the world it needs Twitter.

Elon tried to name PayPal "X" and got kicked off by the board of directors. He named a car the "Model X" at a car company he bought because the naming the second model the "Model 3" was too straightforward, he likes "X," and has the comedic sense of a 12 year old. He founded an aeronautics company and named it "SpaceX" because: 1. It does space things; and 2. "X" He tried to name his child "X" and Grimes broke up with him. He's now renamed Twitter "X" because... he likes the letter "X."

I'm literally watching this to understand why you all still use Twitter... it was incredibly easy to stop, really...

at this point, we could have a hunger games of billionaire CEOs and it’d be a public service

3:55 don't forget the other reason they fired him as CEO is because of his mind-boggling mismanagement, incompetence and his poor coding ability, which had to be rewritten after he left. However because he had stock in PayPal, when it was sold he made hundreds of millions and is the only reason he could do what he did today.

What upsets me the most is I rely on twitter for local wildfire updates. The throttling of how many posts I could see from emergency response teams stressed me out really badly after four solid years of major fires.

Seems like a lot of people don't know that many artists including animators, graphic designers, musicians, producers, and voice actors (like me) need Twitter to find work. That's the only reason I'm still on Twitter, and why many freelancers are still using it. Once the producers leave, then the artists will. But they haven't. So we haven't.

I've never had a Twitter account, so thank you for explaining why a lot of people are still highly attached to theirs.

Trapped in a very literal sense. I deactivated my account that I never used months ago and it's still active. I strongly encourage anyone in the EU or CA who has requested deletion to double check their account and to report non-deletion to whatever regulatory body can hit them with fines. The penalties are severe and pursuing action is your civic duty to help those of us without protections.

The user rate declining is actually much worse than it seems on paper. Social media apps need to be growing at a steady rate. What the 5% decline is not showing is the number of accounts that remain but have become inactive (like mine) where people aren't using it or engaging, but can't be bothered to delete their accounts.

I’ve never used twitter. My only exposure is from the news when they treat a tweet like it’s news

I deleted my Twitter account a few months after Elon bought the site and allowed many of the banned users to return.

As a non-Twitter user, it goes over my head why we need twitter at all.

This was a great watch as someone who exclusively uses tumblr. Twitter's changes made me go from 'I only occasionally go there when I'm linked there' to 'the links are all broken anyway so why bother'.

I find it funny when twitter users think the entire world uses twitter

I actually dropped Twitter around the time the purchase went through last fall. It’s done wonders for my mental health.

Twitter wouldn't let me delete my account. I had to just abandon it instead. I've heard that's a not uncommon issue, and I'm 100% certain that a deliberate company policy to prevent a mass exodus of users.

We really really need to catch up with social media. It has become our society, and it's all privately owned. This should TERRIFY everyone. We are at an existential crisis of information and if we don't figure out how to navigate it, both individually, and socially, we will continue to see inequity, and loss of the ability to discern the quality of information we take in.

We definitely DON'T need Twitter. I've never used it. I've never once felt like I was missing out on something. Especially knowledge.

As someone who has never used Twitter; I *don't* think we need it. There are plenty of other ways to find out if a hurricane is going to eat your house. Like your phone screaming at you horribly.

Just stop using it. I moved to Mastodon and I'm actually quite happy there, despite people rolling their eyes over it. I use social media less and when I do use it, I'm happier.

Adam I don't need twitter, nor have I ever had Twitter. Up vote if you are the same.

M usk is the best example of the fact we don't live in a meritocracy

I wonder if the "only losing 5% of its userbase" statistic is only counting people who deleted their accounts. Most people I know who stopped using Twitter just left, but never deleted their accounts. I know more people who have left than have stayed, other than artists who only use it out of necessity for marketing purposes.

I'm 38 and this video made me feel like I'm an out of touch geriatric. I thought Twitter was dumb when it first came out, always thought it was dumb, never used it, never relied on it for information, and just about all my friends are in the same boat. I have a hard time believing everything he's saying right now.

Here's the thing about Twitter users. You're all collectively deluded about the importance and value of the site. Only 20-30% of Americans have had active Twitter profile at any given time. And among that 20-30%, 20% of them account for 80% of the traffic. That means that 80% of what you see on Twitter has only ever come from 4-6% of the population. It was NEVER the town square. It was NEVER representative of even a meaningful minority of Americans. Bearing all that in mind, it's not actually that weird that the damage Elon's done hasn't driven people from the site. Most of you using it were already willing to engage with what was always a cesspool of nonesense.

With how hard as it was to get off of Facebook, I'm kinda glad I never bought into Twitter. Much sympathy for anyone that relies on social media to promote their brand.

There are a 3rd and 4th options: Option 3: just stop using it and let it die. Option 4: Nationalize Social Media and regulate them as a utility.

From the beginning to now, I still have no idea what people get out of twitter. Literally it's the dumbest social media site, and the only thing that's ever made it useful or popular, is the fact that you can catch famous people saying idiotic things, in random hot takes. And that's pretty much the hierarchy of it all.

Seriously, no one needs Twitter. I quit using it LONG before the current drama with idiots buying it, and I have not once felt like I needed to check Twitter since. It wasn't a bustling city for me, it was always a place where the loudest assholes shout from and my mom to like my boring tweets. We don't need Twitter, we never have, and people might figure that out if people stop making content going "why can't we quit Twitter?"

I left twitter a year ago and it was one of the best decisions i've ever taken. I don't miss it at all.

This is like the 4th time I've heard someone bring up Tumblr as a part of their drag on Twitter. I'll give Adam the credit for not saying it's dead, at least. It's just weird. We do still talk about Supernatural, but mostly ironically, it's full of memes that are weeks, months, or even years old, we read Dracula every year, and we have our own holidays. And Neil Gaiman is there.

Twitter is a meme site. It's not essential. It's not "needed". Everyone who "needs" Twitter, needs their head checked.

I went completely cold turkey on social media two years ago, and honestly, it’s been amazing. No Twitter, no Instagram, no Reddit. I even deleted the RU-vid app from my phone. I only watch RU-vid in my browser now. And I have to say, it’s been a massive improvement. I’m less stressed, I’m wasting less time, and I’ve been able to make more real life connections. Quitting social media has been nothing but a net positive for me.

Nobody I know uses Twitter and whenever I've been on it, I've seen nothing but bots, trolling, and snide comments. I am failing to see why we "need" Twitter.

The strange thing about this video to me is that in my entire network of family and friends and, so far as i know, acquaintances, I was the only one who used Twitter at all before Elon Musk took it over. So, I just don't get how we are "stuck" with it. All some one has to do is come out with something better. When I tried Bluesky, I thought was exactly the same as twitter with most of the same accounts saying the same things and i thought, do i really want to go back to this? and that's why i stopped using it. also, this video totally over looks the porn angle despite name dropping tumblr. threads can't make it because they don't allow nudity.

That description of tumblr was UNCALLED FOR. I didn’t come here to be attacked like that.

i left twitter and i’m back to reading more books. much happier now

I joined Twitter many years ago because artists used it to drop tour dates and other info. After a month, I left because I didn't care about what the fans think. I just want the artists info and updates.

we don't NEED twitter lmao. The website didn't get tanked by elon musk, it was bad before, it's always been bad, and to any well adjusted person it's looked like a hellscape for years.

WE don't need twitter. Also, your "we" does not include me. I appear to be getting along without it just fine.

"It's where the party's at" that party is mostly fascists now, acting like nobody is going to be influenced by them, especially younger people, is ridiculous because they see the stuff next to so many influencers that decide to stay and it will undoubtedly normalize fascism. Incredibly depressing people can't see this.

Not all of us might miss Twitter, Adam. You can't miss what you never used.

I left Twitter this year, and I don’t regret it for a second. If I want to be informed, I’ll actually look things up, not rely on a monstrous abomination of a site to tell me what’s going on.

Never used Twitter. Never saw the appeal. It didn't just recently become a cesspool, as implied here. As always, love your stuff. Thanks!

I think Adam's position on this is a little skewed by being an Internet personality and apparently a heavy twitter user. He's assuming something is important to everyone because it important to him. I have been a committed netizen since back when people were actually still using that term, and I personally have never used twitter. I just didn't see the appeal... and I still don't, and I really don't think I'm in the minority. The importance of twitter is inflated by a very vocal minority.

Speak for yourself, I was never on Twitter and never will be! But also everything you said is, as usual, extremely well-informed, educational, and entertaining. Thanks for all you do Adam.

I’m one of the 5%. My country had some very serious and high profile IT security breaches around the time Musk slashed protections and moderators which was the last straw for me. I missed the people I used to interact with, but was able to break the addiction reasonably easily. I quite like having IRL time back, and am in several Discords with good communities. Having said all that I don’t think I’ll ever forgive Musk for what he did. Twitter was only a cesspool if you ignored the block option and didn’t put in the curating time.

The bit about the "high book" and "hexagon based internet* had made ugly laughing BAD. Bless your comedic writing, speed, and wit.

My guy, aside from public funding, you described Mastodon/the Fediverse at the end. The server I'm on isn't a HUGE party, but if I look around at the folks attending the party, I'm happy to see all of them there. It's a good party, and I know the hosts; I know that I can tell them I'm having a problem, and they'll kick out the assholes.

Google placed an ad for a rehabcenter under this video and I think that's so poetic.

I've left Twitter. My content feed turned into a right wing cesspool. I think people don't want to lose the followers they've built over the years. I left 7k followers.

"We are still refreshing a site we hate?"....What do you mean "we"? I left it as soon as Elon Musk bought twitter and haven't looked back since.

I can leave and did. When I had to pay $8/month to contact any company's tech support. That was the last straw.

Never used Twitter, don't miss it. Just say no, people. Reclaim your life and your dignity.

Best analogy I´ve heard is that twitter is now like that limbo after the party or the club closes where everyone is just outside of the venue trying to figure out where to go next but no one leaves.

Twitter has lost way more than 5% of users. You're using his creative math he's using to save face

Some groups have no choice but using it as a news source especially kpop fanbases do not really have any other social media that can be used for informing,memeing and sharing links. So if there was a serious popular competitor, it will lose all of the user base.

Hey! So for some context for my comment, I built Twitter from the ground up, coined the word Tweet, and helped design the protocols that power Mastodon. First, I'd like to say thanks for making this challenge more visible to a wider audience! In terms of finding solutions, though, I think you've slightly missed the mark. The "public institution" approach is good, and is part of the solution, but it misses an important point: Unlike TV, Twitter is global. In the UK, the BBC has talked about building a "publicly run alternative to social media" - but that doesn't do anything for people in the United States. I'm sure you didn't mean to imply this, but your proposed solution kind of assumes that the only place that matters in this conversation is the US. If you take the argument a bit further, what does it look like if we have a social media, run by public institutions, where everyone's at the party? It looks like ... PBS, NPR, the BBC, the CBC, France TV, etc, and a bunch of private institutions all building systems to support their audiences. But that possible future is fragmented and doesn't have everyone at the party. That's where protocols come in. When the telephone monopolies were broken up, they weren't just nationalized - global standards were established, so that people from the United States could reliably call people from the UK, etc. Things are a bit more complicated now, and the standards involved in social media should be more flexible than the ones that we got for telcos (which ended up being effectively run by cartels), but the general principle applies: We need protocols, not organizations. Mastodon is just one piece of software that uses open protocols to work across organizational boundaries. It's very early days (despite 15+ years of work by many thousands of people to get to this point), and my hope is that Meta/Threads will follow through on their promise to interoperate and that we'll eventually see Twitter itself join the network of interoperable sites. Indeed, it always should have been a protocol, not a site. When you say that you don't know what a better social media landscape would be because we haven't tried it, I'd offer that many of us have, and continue to try. It does a major disservice to their work to dismiss it as "too nerdy." There's a way to frame your video that acknowledges the deep experience and knowledge of those who have put in the work, but also seeks to improve upon that work. I encourage you to use your platform to elevate the volunteers whose work hasn't so far been enough, because we all want the same outcome!

Adam, we *have* tried it before. Before the advent of social media, we had forums. They were run by dedicated, good users who all agreed on a code of conduct, and anyone breaching that code was either warned, suspended our outright shown the door. We had checks and balances against extremist rhetoric. We made sure disinformation and misinformation was not propagated throughout the place or repeated elsewhere. It took a bit more work, but it was worth it because everyone was better mannered and a lot more cognizant of their actions.

I never even used Twitter to begin with, so sitting by and watching the fire has been even more entertaining.

The recent deal with Elon Musk and how he bashes Sweden and the Unions where the reason I left Twitter for good. I rather spend my time listening to podcasts about Germany and German language (because that is actually fun for real) than be on Twitter/X.

I left a week or two after Mushy took over, it became a ghost town and all the thirst-trap girls started missing their reply guys. Never been back. Never missed it. Seems like screaming into the digital void was a phase, not a necessity. Mastodon was like a build your own radio set from radio shack. Hive was just . . . sad. I almost tried Threds but read the no privacy/ harvest all your data disclaimer in the beginning and said “nope!” So now i talk to real people more, accomplish more, and sleep more. Sorry for all the people who created clout on Twitter.

Dude , all the shitty people from tumblr went to twitter. Tumblr has been awesome the past few years because all the shit left. Isn't twitter also like 50% bots or something?

I've never used Twitter because I've never understood the appeal. It is sad that one man ruined something that so many people enjoyed. But if you think it's so terrible, you should honestly just leave it unless you literally can't afford to for professional reasons. That all being said, I am on Tumblr and it's the only social media I genuinely enjoy! It's always surprising to hear other people say that it's a ghost town. In my experience, it is still very much alive.

no one is trapped on any social media.

As a person who never got into the Twitter trend this is fun to watch

The more people who leave the more they'll realize that they can live without it.

Threads could easily have knocked Twitter off but apparently the idea of a chronological feed was just too crazy of an idea for them to implement. Much better to use Instagram's voodoo and fairy dust algorithm to show posts. A chronological feed would have given them time update everything else. Instead, it was near unusable when we logged in and most of us never went back.

I officially left Twitter on July 20, 2024 after being addicted to it for 6 years after realizing that it’s not healthy for me to be on Elon’s Nazi-adjacent electronic bulletin board.

i left twitter during last fall in 2022, it took me months to stay off the website and be consistent. ngl i was genuinely addicted to the site, and leaving it was the best thing that i did for myself.

The reason Elon more than likely likes the letter X is because it goes back to an old belief that the letter X is a symbol of the future. And since he likes what that implies, he's obsessed with the letter. It's basically his way of saying, "Look, I'm so futuristic! Everything I own has an 'x' in it; from SpaceX to X. Aren't I so cool?"

I had absolutely no problem leaving Twitter before it became X so I’m proudly one of that 5%, and my life has less toxicity for it. 👍

The biggest irony here is that I still use Tumblr but I dropped Twitter before musk even bought it

Sorry bro, I don't need Twitter to lead a happy, productive life any more than I need FB, Tik Tok or Insta and I'm no luddite, but rather a tech enthusiast. The harms of most social media simply outweighs the benefits for me. I do like the idea of a public version of a micro blogging site, something closer to Craigslist or Wikipedia.

Speak for yourself, I stopped using Twitter almost a year ago. Haven't looked back.

Twitter has always been an internet rage machine. It occasionally had something funny or informative, but was always a net negative. Quitting it was easy, and I don’t think you need to replace it with anything similar.

I'm one of the 5.6% of Twitter (now X) users that quit Twitter entirely, and I'm glad I did, and wished I'd done it sooner. I'm just disappointed at the state of not only Twitter, but of social media in general. Social media is now nothing but a cesspool of hate, nonsense, unrelated news, and especially since COVID hit the world, I find myself more and more disconnected with my friends on social media. This is why I not only deleted my Twitter account, but also my Facebook (Meta), Instagram and Tumblr accounts. Nowadays, I use Discord, and it's more than enough for me

I generally expect Adam to be more self aware than this. We don’t need Twitter. He needs Twitter.

This party has never felt the need for a Twitter party, much less an X party. I'm not stuck with it, as I always knew I never wanted to be stuck with it.

As someone who left twitter 7 years ago.... I don't think we do actually need it.

Never used Twitter, never understood why people would want to.

Every time I pop onto Twitter, even briefly, is an unpleasant experience. Lots of people I dislike being boosted because they bought their visibility? Check. Tons of obnoxious ads that make scrolling a hot mess? Check. Lousy media playback when I actually want to watch a video? Check. At least I know rocket boy is losing money on it... So, that's a plus.

Except Twitter has always been one of the least used social media sites. They used to give special blue check treatment to journalists, so the journalists loved it and started reporting on it like it's the Great American Town Hall, which it never was. Most Americans don't actually use Twitter.

I think fundamentally, the issue with any US government body overseeing a social media site is that it immediately becomes problematic for any politician from a country outside the US to use. I know that the illusion of privacy is just that, an illusion. But can you imagine how uncomfortable governments would be with having an app owned by the US government on their devices 💀 That's not to say that I wouldn't want a publicly owned twitter, just that it would have to be owned by some form of internationally independent organisation.

ADL needs to ignore any lawsuit attacking their freedom of speech. NOBODY - that means NOT musk NOT the government - has authority over what another person or entity may say on their own platform. And the WORST that X can do to Y is kick Y off X, and the worst that Y can do to X is kick X off Y.

I think there is a disconnect here about Twitter between content creators and the rest of us. I used Twitter for a bit for my past job but otherwise never access the app. Content creators however, even after Musk fucked everything up, still push their Twitter - to the point where they even have giveaways that require you access it through Twitter. Many content creators act as if Twitter is necessary and there is no way to move somewhere else, while it seems regular internet users would rather Twitter just go away. All that said, Adam's point about starting a publically controlled social media is a thought in the right direction. The pendulum has swung in favor of monopolies and corporate power for long enough. It's time to swing it the other way and take public control over internet infrastructure - in both physical space and cyberspace.

I left Twitter over a year ago. Best decision ever.

I would love to say I'm one of the 5% who left Twitter, but unfortunately, I cannot. I never joined Twitter in the first place!

Getting people to call it "social media" was a Big Tech propaganda coup. We should really just start referring to them as "ad platforms."

The best point you made here is how scary it is that social media technically isn't a monopoly. Twitter being run by one billionaire is technically fine because people don't actually NEED Twitter and not everyone uses it or pays attention to any of that, but the reality is that, like you said, it's so ingrained in society as a whole that it basically is a monopoly without legally being one. The world is run by social media and there being no regulation for how any of that works and how much control one company can have is very concerning.

I'm not sold on the premise that anyone needs twitter. According to an NPR report a couple years ago less than 20% of Americans even use the site, and of them less than 5% post anything at all. I think updating twitter to be a better service is more tedious than just stopping its use altogether. Even before Musk took over it was a breeding ground for aggressive and hostile interactions.

I think your metaphor hit the nail on the head for me -- Twitter is like a bustling city where all the people are. I moved to the countryside and haven't looked back 🤷‍♂️