Twitter’s Fate — Fallen Hero
I’ve been wrapping my mind a lot around Twitter (yes I know it's X, I’m still calling it Twitter). Twitter has been an important part of my life for well over a decade. Right from the beginning, I completely saw its value. It has been standalone, a social network like none other. It reminded me of a real time access to a free library of resourceful information. Real news at your fingertips, the ability to learn from scholars and high level individuals who share their work. If you had a particular hobby, you could build a community by following those with the same interests which allowed for collaboration and learning. Twitter’s inception was rooted in this idea of real-time access to information, content, and connections. It was a breeding ground for communities, a space where shared interests ignited collaboration and learning.
Twitter was amazing. Was.
I’ve read a few books on Twitter, being fascinated with its inception. When Twitter originally launched, one of the co-founders friends tweeted that they were at a music festival outside San Francisco. Noah Glass, the co-founder of Twitter, responded “This is why we built this thing. For concerts and music shows!” Can you believe how much has changed? I miss those early days of Twitter when users talked about their day and weekend in a positive, simplistic light. An unseen bi product of Twitter was its ability to function as an emergency response tool. We saw that with the 2007 fires in San Diego. This was right after the hashtag was invented, which was then put to great use. Twitter proved to be an excellent tool to help citizens, fire fighters, etc with life saving data to work against a massive disaster.
My how so much has changed. The original vision of Twitter was to provide this useful and resourceful real time response to its users. To transmit valuable date quickly and influence people who share the same interests. I myself experienced this in stock trading. I made many friends through Twitter and was able to learn quite a bit of information in my own community of stock traders. It was amazing.
But the sad reality is this isn’t such a surprise as one would think. You see, human history has shown that man takes a working concept and messes it all up for bad. Time and time we have seen organizations and concepts deviate from their original intent. Twitter is no exception. This tells us really where the human heart lies…and where boundaries that exist in physical social settings, do not exist online which leads to this proliferation of bad behavior. Not to mention…it's encouraged. Algorithms seek to keep users engaged, selecting the most controversial content.
The most classic example I can think of is the story of Alfred Nobel. Alfred, a Swedish inventor, created dynamite for pure utility function- blasting mountains for railroad, mining, etc. However, human intervention caused dynamite to be used to kill more humans faster than any other weapon preceding it. Alfred, feeling remorseful his legacy would be labeled as the “Merchant Of Death” given a chance encounter with a newspapers incorrect title regarding his brother’s death, Alfred decided to endow and cede the Nobel Peace Prize
If we think building a new platform is going to change the outcome. That’s no different than discarding one area of land for another after polluting and exhausting all the natural resources. The patterns of behavior need to be fixed instead of transferred.
The landscape has shifted. The original vision seems obscured amid the noise of controversy and algorithmic prioritization of contentious content. The absence of physical boundaries online has unveiled the darker facets of human behavior. It’s disheartening to see how a platform designed for connection and learning has, in some ways, become a stage for negative behavior, fueled by algorithms that thrive on contentious interactions.
The trend across human history where concepts meant for good deviate from their original purpose reflects the underlying complexity of human nature and how social dynamics play out in virtual and physical spaces. We see corruption take hold of organizations, plans, societies, etc. There’s an urgent need to address behavioral patterns rather than just shifting to new platforms. Without addressing the core issues, the same negative patterns are likely to resurface elsewhere. It's not the platform per se, it's the people.
When you invent a new technology, you uncover a new class of responsibility. Without action in this responsibility, the result is almost always chaos.
In reality, the challenge lies not just in technological innovation but in promoting a healthier online culture. Perhaps rethinking algorithms to prioritize constructive engagement and curating digital literacy to encourage responsible use could be steps towards reclaiming the essence of what made platforms like Twitter so impactful initially. It’s about reimagining the platform’s purpose while also reconsidering our roles as users within these virtual community. However, I know this is all a pipe dream as companies vie and complete to grab your attention. Algorithms are designed to keep you engaged in the platform — with no regard to how destructive it is to the person. This cannot scale on the human heart.
