Twitter's slow death is measured in disasters like the Baltimore bridge collapse | Hacker News Reader

Twitter's slow death is measured in disasters like the Baltimore bridge collapse

vox.com

19 pointsthunderbong17 comments

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Twitter is like smoking. Once you manage to get away from it you start to realize how stupid it was.

Even moreso than that, future generations will see social media users the same way our generation sees smokers.

Honestly looking forward to the trials in similar form that cigarette companies had

> future generations will see social media users the same way our generation sees smokers.

something only european's do?

We made cigarettes uncool for kids, can you believe that?! We had legitimately made it into something no kids wanted to do, freed future human society from smoking in general, despite all our best attempts at torpedoing it like stupid politics and DARE being actively counterproductive, yet we totally did it.

Then vaping happened....

Addictive substances will always be good business

Are you sure WE made that happen? Maybe it was THEM?

Or, you simply adopt Mastodon or something as your nicotine gum... (That's what I did, though I normally think of it more as Twitter Methadone).

I thought the article was going to talk more about how Twitter isn’t really used for breaking news as ubiquitously anymore. It used to be the authority on that sort of thing, almost like it was “faster” than other social media.

It’s hard to put a finger on but to me it feels like the changes put together put Twitter in more of a niche landscape, like it’s not that app that everyone uses and everyone references on TV shows anymore. It’s just one of the more mediocre options in a sea of other social media.

There was a time when nothing else really did the same function that Twitter did.

I have to think that Reddit is really taking over the breaking news space that Twitter used to dominate. TikTok and Instagram pull away a lot of the entertainment. Threads is yet another new alternative, along with Mastodon and BlueSky their sliver as well.

This isn’t a company that’s likely to grow its user base or even keep it stable anytime soon.

>I thought the article was going to talk more about how Twitter isn’t really used for breaking news as ubiquitously anymore.

Same, I was kind of expecting some kind of stats comparing tweet numbers for this disaster with previous disasters to show something like "people aren't talking about the real world on twitter as much." Instead the article is lamenting how twitter has changed into a psyop/influence network that you can't trust anymore. Perhaps we never should have trusted twitter or assigned it as much value as we did if "racist mobs" can move in and overwhelm a narrative so easily.

The editor they interviewed pointed out that there were unsourced videos and conspiracy theories about the disaster so it really sounds like they were unhappy that twitter isn't primarily used by journalists who provide sources and receipts. Sure, that's a way people can use twitter but it's definitely not how most use twitter.

To that point, I don’t feel like Jack Dorsey’s Twitter was totally absent of this kind of content.

Maybe the skeleton crew Twitter is worse at moderation (and Elon Musk doesn’t care/actively wants disinformation that benefits his investors) but because this influence network existed back then the article didn’t feel terribly eye-opening.

The OpenAI drama a few months back largely unfolded on twitter. xz from this weekend, I think I've only seen one twitter post here about it (the same count as blue sky).

Yes, even if you're a journalist you don't get to decide anymore what is and isn't legitimate news and a legitimate viewpoint on that news.

That doesn't mean twitter is dying.

I like encountering racism and conspiracy theories on twitter: it means people really are allowed to communicate about any topic in any way they want. And I'm allowed to engage with it or not.

I like encountering roaches & rats in the building basement. It means people really are allowed to throw their garbage anywhere they want. And I'm allowed to engage with it or not.

The analogy doesn't hold. There is no country in the world that enshrines in its doctrines and laws the right for people to throw garbage anywhere they want. That's not a human right or a privilege for which people have fought and died.

But speech is.

You might argue that Twitter isn't the government and nobody should have an expectation of free speech there, or that Twitter is international and many developed countries have laws against hate speech.

However, "freedom to say things others don't like" is a thing people generally value or regret not having, in any country.

It's not unreasonable to celebrate the evidence that on Twitter it is alive and well.

This is one of the few topics (this being Twitter or anything Elon Musk-adjacent), where getting downvotes on HN is commonplace.

I think what's being argued is that racism and conspiracy theory are the speech equivalent of garbage and you making a point of celebrating their presence, as if that were somehow undermining "big journalism" with something of value, isn't worth much even as an endorsement of free speech itself.

But you are correct, free speech is free speech, so enjoy wallowing in the cesspool all you like.

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