I am not an expert on social media platforms, or big business or … anything, really. It’s easy to toss out words like “algorithms” without having any detailed understanding of how they work. Hell, even free speech issues can be a little more complicated than most people take them for. (At least I think so.)
So I’m not trying to pass any definitive judgement on Elon Musk’s handling of his company (or the management of the subordinates he’s selected).
But Twitter just isn’t enjoyable any more. My newsfeed has the feel of being completely random, without the links to articles that I find informative. (In fact, there appear to be far fewer articles of any kind.)
I’m seeing tweets from Marjorie Taylor Green, Newsmax and Musk himself, among other people. (I do not wish to follow any of those tweeters, yet here we are.) The strangest thing of all is that I seem to be seeing short videos of random violence in my feed (street fights, etc.). It’s all so very odd.
I no longer view Twitter as a helpful source of news and information from people that I trust. Yes … I realize that maybe I sound like someone who previously inhabited an online “echo chamber;” but whatever. I know that MTG and her followers are not an improvement. I’d rather have my existing biases confirmed than be an audience to that mad, rabid, semi-literate banshee-troglodyte from aryan-ass ghettos of white trash hell.
A pal of mine keeps telling me to migrate over to Mastodon. And another site called “Post” (?) seems to be getting a lot of attention. No verdict from me on those yet.
Anyway, I’m just chiming in.