It was 15 years ago today when I finally decided to start Twitter. I say ‘finally decided’ because I was in a network of bloggers who were already on board and it seemed every day I was reading some new convert’s blog post about what a great tool it was. And they were right! I loved it so much, I wrote an ebook about how to get started:
But Twitter has changed, and I’m not just talking about Elon Musk’s blue verification fiasco. No, the changes started long before that. For educators, the glory days were 2007-2010 or 2011. That’s when there were amazing resources being shared for their value to teachers rather than businesses. That’s when educators shared ideas on blog posts and full conversations about the post would happen in the blog comments and on Twitter.
After that there was a shift. The tone went from ‘look at this great resource or interesting post’ to look at my post or my tweet, and corporate tweets seemed to be promoted by the same people. I’d share a blog post and it would be auto-retweeted by educators who used to read my posts before they were shared. And less conversations happened because the next tweet was more important than the previous one.
For the last few years Twitter has been more of a one-way distribution of my blog rather than a place I engage in. When I hit ‘Publish’ on this post, it auto-posts to Twitter, my blog’s Facebook page, and LinkedIn without me having to go to any of those sites… and sometime I won’t go to them for a few days at a time.
I long for the days of old-Twitter. I’d happily put up with the Fail Whale again (which popped up when servers couldn’t meet demand) just to get the old, exciting engagements back. But I’m afraid those little Twitter birds aren’t keeping the whale up like they used to. Twitter might survive the fiascos it faces today, but it won’t ever recapture what it lost long ago.
Hi David! Long time, no tweet 😉
I remember your ebook well, it was one I’d recommend in those days where we would explain the virtues of what you cast as the good days of yore. I won’t give credit to Twitter, but more than mix of what you describe that led us to actually meet.
It’s not the same, but what online spaces that grow do stay the same? I can recall when it was worthwhile to read YouTube comments 😉
Even with all the doom demising of twitter, I still manage to have discoveries I might not have found elsewhere, experience good old web serendipity, and have good back and forth conversations now– my approach is not putting my eyes into the algorithmic public flow where you get the sludge you describe (my window is Tweetdeck lists, hash tags, search columns).
Not the same, but not all doom. I don’t think we can put all the blame on the company/platform (not defending in any way, all felt better when it was simple 140 chars) some is us.
Oops, just meant to say, happy 15th 😉
So good to hear from you Alan, and I love your positive spin on the changes. I haven’t left twitter completely, but the serendipity isn’t there as much for me. Still, with everything going on there now with the Elon takeover, I am interested to see its next iteration. As long as monetization isn’t the only focus, I think Twitter will be a tool I use for a while still. And I’ll always be thankful for the connections it allowed me to make… to awesome people like you!