Is it time to say goodbye to X?
Tuesday Treat #1
Welcome to Tuesday Treat! More personal thoughts and ramblings just like in Saturday Treat. Hope you enjoy it! :)
I’ve been thinking about leaving X(Twitter) for quite some time now. I mentioned closing the door on the app in a previous post. One might think that I thought about leaving the app after the results of the US Elections when I thought about it back in 2022 (Philippine Presidential Election results).
I’ve been going back and forth on whether to delete my account and I’m not surprised that several people deleted their accounts after the US Presidential Election results and left.
The question now is, is it time to say goodbye to X?
The Elon Musk takeover
The talk of people leaving X isn’t new. When Musk bought and took over the app two years ago, several users threatened to leave. The difference? This year, people are leaving. Celebrities, personalities, The Guardian, and NPR are among those who left the app.
Is Elon Musk reason enough to leave the app?
I would say yes, especially with his changes, starting with the name change from Twitter to X. Let’s be real here: x.com sounds like an adult website. I don’t know what’s wrong with Twitter that he had to change it to X.
The new terms of service are another reason people are leaving the app. It states that users must agree and allow their posts to be trained by artificial intelligence including the app’s Grok.
“One major reason people are deleting X is because the Elon Musk-owned platform’s new terms of service, effective Friday, Nov. 15, are bad for users’ privacy. These state that all users must agree to let their posts be trained by artificial intelligence, including X’s own service, Grok. It was previously possible to opt out from this.” - From Forbes article by Kate O’Flaherty.
That in itself is reason enough to bid farewell to the app because that is as the article stated, “bad for users’ privacy.”
Misinformation and Toxic Rhetoric
Other reasons people leave X are the rise in hate speech and toxic rhetoric. Not only did Musk rebrand Twitter to X, but the hate speech also increased since his takeover of the social media platform. There were also reports of harassment, extremist contents were seen rising, and misinformation was spreading like wildfire upon Musk’s takeover.
“During the first three months of Musk’s tenure the rate of daily tweets containing slurs against Black Americans more than tripled, the organization said, basing its research on social media analysis tool Brandwatch. From October through March, tweets referring to the LGBTQ+ community alongside slurs such as “groomer” rose 119%. Online hate often leads to real harm: reports of harassment on Twitter rose 6% this year, according to the ADL.” - From Time’s article by Aisha Counts and Eari Nakano.
I don’t think Musk and everyone in X are doing anything to address and solve it. He made it even worse by letting go of trust and safety employees, reinstating banned accounts, and removing verification labels (the blue tick) to accounts that don’t want to pay for a verification label.
“Twitter has made a series of changes to its content safety efforts under Musk, such as loosening its rules, laying off trust and safety employees, reinstating accounts previously banned for violating the platform’s policies and removing the verification labels on high-profile accounts that don’t want to pay for a checkmark. Those changes, in addition to turning off advertisers, have alienated many users.” - From Time’s article by Aisha Counts and Eari Nakano.
The misinformation on that platform disgusts me, truly. I don’t think the community note is enough to salvage the misinformation I stumble upon on X. Misinformation about health (most especially during Covid-19), climate change, elections, and the ongoing wars happening in various parts of the world (Russia-Ukraine, Israel-Palestine, Lebanon) are constantly seen in the godforsaken app. This Rolling Stone article on misinformation timeline on X is a good read on this subject matter. Read here.
It’s quite tiring to witness the toxic replies of trolls, haters, and fanatics to people who simply want to share opinions and thoughts on certain subject matter. I see this more often between people who have differences in politics and KPOP fan wars. It can be taxing but can lead one to doom-scrolling.
Viral Moments and Memes
Remember the blue or gold dress? How about that Willy Wonka experience gone wrong? It’s no secret that there were viral moments that were heavily documented on X. Let’s not forget the memes that were also used a lot on the app.
There’s this Business Insider article about the memorable moments on Twitter. You can read it here.
But is that enough to stay on the app? Sure, those can make us laugh momentarily but what happens when it dies down? Do we have to wait for another viral moment to keep us sane?
I don’t think it’s enough. At this point, there are more asinine moments than good-hearted moments. You can argue that we can just block and report the Tweets but nothing happens. It’s so easy to say to just ignore it, sometimes you can’t ignore it anymore.
Will I leave?
The question now is, will I finally leave X?
The answer is maybe. I haven’t been using it as much, only the occasional likes and retweets. I’ve been only using it for updates on my favorite KPOP group (GOT7) who are most probably preparing for a comeback and other crackhead moments on the app. Lately, I’ve been enjoying life on Bluesky. But I feel like I will leave the app sooner rather than later.