Farewell Twitter/X: Why I'm Leaving After 16 Years
Joseph Liu
Keynote speaker, career consultant, and podcast host dedicated to helping professionals relaunch their careers
I joined Twitter way back in 2008, during the Foursquare, Gowalla, pre-Like button internet era when Twitter was a private startup. The only other social media platforms I joined earlier (that still exist) are Facebook and LinkedIn.
Twitter was unique. You could connect directly with thought leaders, post micro-thoughts, and connect with brands. I was a big believer in Twitter for years, and it marked my first foray into the world of publicly facing social media. I even dabbled with Periscope (that it acquired) for a while.
I once believed Twitter was a solid platform
Before 2022, I regularly recommended Twitter to audiences who joined my personal branding workshops. I considered it one of the top three social media platforms (in addition to LinkedIn and Medium) where you could get the greatest return on your invested time when using it to convey your professional reputation and domain expertise.
"Twitter is here to stay. I can't imagine a world where it doesn't remain a convenient, go-to platform for journalists, the media, and professionals to share content. So I'd recommend you at least secure your username and profile there even if you don't intent to use it immediately."
That's a direct quote from . . . me. I couldn't have been more wrong about the future of Twitter at the time.
X has decimated Twitter’s brand
Since Elon Musk's takeover in 2022, the platform has been in a downward spiral both in terms of content and brand. The content has become very aggressive, negative, vicious at times, and full of falsehoods. X has shifted toward focusing more on freedom of expression at the expense of safety and monetization at the expense of content quality , rewarding extreme content and shock posts, which may be why so many advertisers and media outlets, including The Guardian , and NPR have chosen to leave the platform.
From a branding standpoint, the fall from Twitter to X has been a true brand tragedy. The equity and reputation of the platform have been utterly destroyed over the past two years. A case study of how to vaporize over 15 years of hard-earned brand equity just like that. I can only imagine what people like Biz Stone or Ev Williams now think about what remains of the platform they worked so hard to build.
I've never had a large following on Twitter/X (or any social media platform for that matter), but I maintained a presence there mostly because it remains one of the world's most frequented social media sites. In 2023, I stopped recommending the platform in my personal branding workshops and removed it from my presentations.
Now, for the same reasons I'm not active on platforms like Truth Social, Gab, or Parlor due to the negative, conspiratorial content on those platforms, I've decided having a presence on X is now damaging to one's reputation.
For all these reasons, I no longer plan to remain active on X moving forward.
Where I’ll go instead for microblogging
I don't, however, want to abandon micro-posting completely. I do feel micro-posting serves a unique role in sharing content from a personal branding standpoint. Therefore, I've decided, for the time being, to shift my content to two other platforms:
First,?Bluesky?due to its?safety and content moderation tools and?focus on trust and safety . I also like the idea of the social app?not being controlled by a single company .
I also feel Reddit has positively evolved over the years with a business model , company values & mission statement I can buy into: bringing "community, belonging, and empowerment to everyone in the world" (not just billionaires). Having listened to this Motley Fool Money podcast interview with Reddit founder Steve Huffman , his vision for Reddit moving forward as a place for "normal human conversations" feels promising and aligns with my own personal branding philosophies.
So, for my micro-posts moving forward, you're welcome to now instead follow me on:
How do you feel about Twitter/X these days?
I'd be curious how other long-time users of Twitter are now thinking about the platform, both fans and non-fans. What are your thoughts on the state of X? For those also leaving X, where are you now headed and why? Bluesky? Mastadon? Threads? Reddit? I'd welcome your thoughts and suggestions, as I've been very wrong about this before!
Strategy and Policy Advisor @ NHS England | Health Workforce
1 周I rapidly exited Twitter early 2022 when rumours of Musk taking over were circulating. I abandoned Facebook in 2011, similarly, feeling uncomfortable about the ethics of the company and that the true purpose of the platform was not what we were being led to believe. I never got Instagram although I am thankful to the kindness of my friends who forward anything funny that they think I'd appreciate! Intuitively something has always felt slightly off about social media and how effective digital platforms actually are to enable people to connect authentically to others. There's a whole host of other unsettling risks to offset in terms of AI, data privacy and cybersecurity... Personally, I feel that less is more and I'm not interested in joining any of the alternatives. Jon Haidt's work dives into the compelling evidence of the harms of social media and smartphones on developing brains, and the rapid spread of misinformation unregulated platforms have enabled has convinced me that the utility is limited and, well, it's probably had it's hey day..... From a professional perspective - business, marketing and personal branding - social media is somewhat essential, so Linkedin suffices for me.