I really don’t want to talk about Twitter’s demise, but part of my grieving process seems to be to think about it. So, sorry.
It’s not surprising but still shocking to see that most people do not have any contingency at all for losing their primary social network. If Friendster, Pownce, App.net, GeoCities, Myspace, and Ping have taught us anything then that even big networks do fail (and Ping). Some crumble gradually and lose their usefulness. Others explode into fiery supernovas and burn out.
People active in the indie web community have always warned from putting all content into one social network that you do not have control over. But that is exactly what many people have done with Twitter. And I get it. Not everyone can and wants to have their own website. We see the same thing happen with sites like Linktree. But if your – for the lack of better words – content creation relies on a singular platform you have no control over, you should expect it to go away at any moment, and plan accordingly.
That is why I am encouraging people to test out alternatives, even if there are obstacles and (accessibility) barriers. Because learning work-arounds and favorite ways to interact on different platforms now is much easier than doing it later. You don’t have to switch 100% or burn your Twitter account, nobody expects that. Experiment with an account on Mastodon or micro.blog or Myspace (turns out it’s not 100% dead yet).
I still reply and interact with people on Twitter and there is a good chance you came to this post from there. That’s totally fine. Use what is comfortable for you, but also be aware of your options.