Musings on Twitter and replacements for serendipity

Navel gazing

I joined Twitter in February 2009 and I'm not exactly sure why. I do remember the fail whales and the early tweeting of what people ate for lunch, though. Even though I have accounts on other social media platforms, I rarely engage with them -- over the years the tech community seemed to coalesce around Twitter and so did I. It became a self-reinforcing cycle, especially because my job (and my hobby) is so centered around words on a screen.

For a long time I only read tweets, but rarely created my own. I could "listen" to personalities that I have never met in person "talk out loud" about topics I was interested in. Brilliant thinkers like Camille Fournier, Charity Majors or Adam Johnson didn't need to create a conference talk or a whole article. At its best Twitter allowed me to read what smart people were thinking about and surface other interesting people.

This created a bubble (in the best sense). I got information from people I trusted (and they surfaced information they trusted). But, there was also a sense of discovery and newness. And I had the tools to silence most tweets that invaded that pleasant experience by aggressively muting, blocking, and unfollowing those who disrupted my bubble.

Over time I built up a few hundred followers of my own once I started tweeting primarily about tech topics. "Niche-ing down" to what I was most interested in, Python and Django, allowed others who were also interested in those topics to find me and follow me. They knew what to expect and I rarely strayed from that path. Writing an entire article can feel self-indulgent (present article very much included), whereas a tweet could be posted on a whim. I had nice interactions with people who "knew" me and with so few followers there was little incentive for bots or trolls to join in. Twitter was a low friction way for people to reach out to me with questions or comments about what I was putting out into the "public square".

Musings on the business of social media

I liked Twitter so much I was one of the suckers who paid $3/month for Twitter Blue. I didn't use any of the features (and the ad-free articles never seemed to work -- R.I.P. Scroll), but I wanted to support the service and do what little I could to keep it around. Honestly, I probably would have paid more.

I realize I'm idealistic, but I viewed Twitter as a utility -- it was enabling information to be spread in a new way. Trying to balance the common good with the requirements of a VC-backed, stock market-fueled company seems incredibly challenging. Wikipedia is extraordinarily successful in this endeavor and its non-profit status seems to be a key factor. The only business model for social media platforms is to create an ad platform to monetize eyeballs or to sell user's personal data.

The common good and the requirements of capitalism are in direct opposition. Companies chasing engagement metrics and ad revenue creates incentives where whoever is the most incendiary wins. That isn't a platform that I personally want to engage with or support.

Now what?

Having a public square where anyone can type into the void and random people can read it created serendipity and chance encounters which would not have happened without Twitter. I don't think I can actually replace it.

However, for the discovery of new information I'm going to lean even harder on a few things that I already use now: email newsletters and RSS. These decidedly old-school technologies are more focused on longer-form content and that's... probably good for my brain anyway? Preventing the quick-hit endorphin rush of endless scrolling has to be a net societal positive.

I already subscribe to a few newsletters, but I'm going to create a new email address (thank you email aliases with Fastmail) which will be dedicated to them. That way I will have a dedicated place they will "live" and they aren't interspersed with personal emails.

For RSS, I'm doubling down on NetNewsWire and trying to find more diverse feeds to follow. iCloud integration across my laptops and iPhone keeps what I've read synced across all devices.

Reddit feels like a completely different model. The niches are there with sub-reddits, but it's less personality-focused which has its pros and cons. It feels stuck in the forums of a by-gone age, but I'll probably be spending more time there than previously.

I have also set up a Mastodon account, but I've been... underwhelmed so far. It isn't fair to compare a brand new social media account to 10+ years of accumulated interactions with another platform. I know I need to follow more people to make it worthwhile, but in the short term having less social media in my life doesn't seem all that bad.

Maybe eventually I'll swallow my disappointment with Twitter's apparent new direction. Or maybe Twitter will stumble onto a different business model. I'm not holding my breath for Twitter to change, but I'm hopeful that something else arises that provides some of the same benefits and more closely aligns with my perspectives.