HACKER Q&A
📣 talkingtab

Why are you still on Twitter?


It seems like some reasonable people are still on twitter.

In my mind (and I could of course be wrong) twitter is harmful to society. Any platform that has code "if isRepublican then x; else if isDemocrat then y" is going to be divisive. "if isJewish" "if isFemale". It so obvious that this will promote distrust and divisions. I hear one thing, you hear another.

So my question is whether my understanding of the effects of twitter is wrong. Or do you continue to use twitter because ..."

Really I just don't get it. People I respect - Paul Graham for one - continue to use twitter, so maybe I am just not understanding something.

  👤 mattbillenstein Accepted Answer ✓
Inertia, there's more content on Twitter still than Threads.

Elon is definitely working to kill the platform with all these random by fiat changes he's making in the name of "free speech" - which to the right means you can lie and spread as many conspiracy theories as you want. I don't think the general population is interested in that - there is a medium of sensible moderation that keeps discourse civil and roots out the worst of the lies and conspiracies.

👤 neverrroot
I’m on Twitter because of the quality of ideas/discussions on some of the subjects that are very important to me professionally: fintwit, quants in general, IT security.

Vast majority of my followers/go-to people is still there mainly. The noise is lower than before. I mute and block based on keywords and any accounts I don’t need in my life, got very clean timeline(s) as a result.

👤 Multiplayer
I'm locked out of my circa 2006 twitter account because I had 2 factor auth turned on using SMS for the last 10 years. I had twitter blue for a month and when it lapsed they took away the SMS auth. I no longer have access to my 2nd auth.

I'm guessing there is a way to figure it out (maybe if I subscribe again) but I've lost interest in Twitter. The signal to noise ratio isn't worth it.

👤 guax
I was, until they broke old tweetdeck. So my 2009 account is no longer. It's actually has been good thought I'm still curious about what goes on in there, so musk breaking non logged in view is also great because it reduces my will to get back.
👤 guerra
Old twitter > twitter now... But still the "best" social platform where see cool people thoughts... I'm waiting Threads start its game... But who knows? Maybe there will be a new social
👤 mattl
Still there but account locked. I’ve mostly moved to social.coop for Mastodon and Bluesky.
👤 jdjdjdhhd
My guess is that he is using it because of the number of followers he has
👤 3cats-in-a-coat
I've had accounts on Twitter before, and deleted them in time, as I've found it's a major time suck which isn't properly compensated by the value I get out of it.

I signed up again in October 2022 to watch excitedly how Elon Musk, visionary genius, will magically transform it into "X - The Everything App".

Instead I'm watching him embarrass himself every day as he's flushing 50 billion down the drain. So far, it's sufficiently entertaining that I'm staying on.

If it gets boring, I'll delete my account again.