Is Twitter dead?

I’ve had a lot of questions recently about Twitter…

• Is Twitter dead?
• Should I leave Twitter?
• Why is Twitter rebranding?

…to name a few.

I felt that Twitter was on a real decline before Musk purchased it — a view shared by Musk himself, who tweeted “Is Twitter Dying?” back in April 2022 and subsequently purchased the platform for a massively inflated price.

The platform seemed to be suffering from overzealous censorship and was struggling to compete with the popularity of other platforms like TikTok. It was (and still is) overrun by bots and keyboard warriors, which can prevent users (particularly businesses) from achieving their goals and accurately judging success.

In my view, it badly needed fresh ideas and a change of direction.

As part of what seems like an ongoing campaign against Elon Musk, many people have been vocal about the changes he has made so far.

Yet while he has made a few mistakes, he hasn’t made many substantive changes — until this rebrand to ‘X’ (which reminds me of the Facebook-Meta move, which received similar ridicule).

Criticism of Twitter Blue has largely been fair (but is driven by a need to somehow increase revenue) and the default feed has changed (with limited success) to cater to individuals’ interests — but other than that, the platform (and how people use it) remains largely the same, bar the complaints. Users may wish to note that the default feed can easily be changed back to ‘following’.

This all suggests to me that the issues are being blown a little out of proportion.

It’s also worth noting that in today’s world, attention is king — and the level of coverage (whether positive or negative) being received by Twitter/Musk speaks volumes.

Is usership decreasing?

Twitter does seem to be losing users — but far fewer than is currently being reported.

Interestingly, it was reported to be losing ‘heavy’ users last year — before Musk bought the company and made any changes to the platform.

Threads is also struggling with (active) usership so soon after its launch. Plagued by technical issues and lacking proper search functionality, this doesn’t seem like a realistic alternative.

These types of issues are nothing new. As social networks mature, they need fresh impetus.

People don’t like change

Ultimately, as humans, we all despise change — and I think that’s the driving force behind Twitter receiving so much criticism.

It’s still too early to predict what will happen in the future — but clearly claims that Twitter is ‘dead’ are premature.

Whatever your views on Elon Musk, the man is successful. He made electric cars ‘cool’ and reinvigorated space travel.

The plan with ‘X’ is seemingly to integrate what was previously Twitter with a variety of other applications, including payments and AI.

From the man who co-founded PayPal, it isn’t hard to imagine how the functionality that this could provide might lead to a whole new appeal for the app in future. It’s clear that this is just the beginning.

While people do hate change, we also love innovation — and if X can get it right, it could be a game-changer. Some might say that this would depend on Musk’s ability to change his public image, which is something that he doesn’t seem all that bothered about. However, if the tech is good enough, that won't stop people using it.

?

What will the future hold?

It seems like we might see further change in the way that people use Twitter.

When the platform was first released, people would use it to update their friends about what they were doing at that specific moment.

Today, it is the most news-orientated of all the major social networks — and its shift away from censorship to a more ‘free for all’ approach seems to suggest that it could become the centre of verifying accounts and facts in a world that is set to become saturated by AI, deepfakes and other new technologies that have the potential to cause confusion and distrust.

Yet first, Musk will need to address X’s revenue and bot problems. He will then need to showcase exactly how X will integrate with AI to provide users with enhanced value and trust.

Most great ideas seem crazy at first. Let’s see whether Musk can turn this one around.