You don’t actually have to stay on Twitter.
First, allow me to share my credentials:
▪️ I met my now-husband on Twitter. At our wedding, half the toasts mentioned me tweeting. I’m not particularly proud of this (what a sad thing to be known to be obsessed with) but I’m mentioning it for cred.
▪️ Professionally, I’ve worked on or with Twitter for most of the last 16 years. In 2011, I took over President Obama’s social media operation, including his Twitter account (also: Joe Biden’s and Michelle Obama’s). My team helped define how presidential campaigns (and everyone else) used Twitter and other social platforms. I am pretty sure “RT if you agree” being a thing is mostly my fault. On the day of the election, I posted a tweet that was, for a while, the most-shared post of all time, until Ellen took that selfie with a bunch of celebrities at the Oscars. The caption was later a clue on Jeopardy.
▪️ In the years since 2012, I’ve helped several public figures, including one of the most famous people on the planet, define their voice and presence on social platforms including Twitter.
You don’t actually have to stay on Twitter.
Even at the height of its influence, it was strategically only useful for a couple real reasons: because reporters were obsessed with it, and because it played some role in creating culture. The first is increasingly less true, and the second is largely less true.
Is Twitter a good persuasion tool? No. The people you need to reach for that reason probably never used it in the first place.
Is Twitter a good amplification or framing tool? No. Musk’s algorithm elevates views he likes and demotes those he doesn’t.
Is Twitter a place for creating culture? No, unless you’re a Nazi.
Is Twitter a good organizing tool? No. It’s filled with bots, not secure, it demotes links, and few people you’d organize with still use it.
Is Twitter simply any fun to be on? No, especially if you’re not a white man and regularly get rape and death threats.
A key fact: Not many people used Twitter in the first place. What mattered was WHO used it. The people who mattered are now largely gone or drowned out by the tidal wave of shit.
Overall: There are many better tools to persuade people with, organize with, frame arguments with, and have fun with.
Twitter’s gone, and now that Trump won again with Musk’s help, it’s gone forever. Let it go.