Why I Quit Twitter
Elon Musk is crawling up Trump's ass and I don't want to go with him.
Elon Musk, on stage with Donald Trump, pogoing like he was at an Everclear concert in 1997 was the last straw for me.
I quit Twitter.
For years, even before Musk’s takeover, users referred to Twitter as a “hellsite.” The daily trope, “What are we angry about today?” goes as far back as the site itself, I think; I remember people using it when I first joined in 2009.
But it was fun, too. You saw only posts from people you followed, a mix of school and work friends, online-only friends, and brands you liked. I created and hosted a small but dynamic tweet chat when I was the communications manager for a nonprofit. People played hashtag games, like #LessInterestingBooks, and people would come up with answers like “Waldo’s Right Here” and “Tropic of Psoriasis.”
In 2011, Rob Sheridan wrote about hashtag games for the New York Times:
The nice thing about hashtag games is that, like everything else on Twitter, it’s democratic. You find great stuff from professional writers but also hilarious things from nondepressed people with normal jobs.
Democratic. What an innocent time 2011 was.
Hashtag games disappeared from Twitter once Musk took over, and so did anything resembling fun. He created the odious “For You” tab, which shoved in your face the most controversial takes from engagement-farming accounts. If you wanted to see a bunch of unwashed 18-year-old boys rant about how women’s suffrage ruined America, this was the place to do it. I tried blocking the rage-baiters, but it turned into a game of Whack-A-Mole. I’d get rid of one, only for another to take over within hours.
It’s true that before Musk, Twitter was the site of thousands of nasty pile-ons and that since he took over, the sort of people who like to start dogpiles have defected to other sites. But he didn’t improve hell. He just added new circles to it. Never all that fun to begin with, it just wasn’t fun at all anymore.
In June, I went to Hawaii and took Twitter off my phone’s home screen so it wouldn’t distract me. I never put it back. I glanced at it a few times after I got back from my trip and quickly remembered why I’d stopped using it.
And then there was Musk, perpetually army-crawling through Trump’s lower intestines and leaving a putrid trail of sewage everywhere he went. First of all, he’s not the free speech champion he claims to be. If he were, he wouldn’t have gone after journalists who criticized him. The old adage, “I hate what you say but I’ll defend to the death your right to say it,” does not come with fine print that says “unless you point out my flaws.”
Secondly, The Daily Beast is reporting that Musk is hiring an “army of canvassers” to knock on doors for Trump in swing states. He wants to be Trump’s “Secretary of Cost-Cutting.” He’s given Trump $75 million so far.
If you’re still using Twitter, some of that money is coming from you. “You pay for Twitter” became a common putdown after Musk turned blue checks into a subscription perk. But even users with free accounts contribute to the site’s revenue. Advertisers bid on keywords to get their ads placed in users’ timelines, so even if you never click on any advertiser's links, your use of the site contributes to Musk’s bottom line…and Trump’s.
I know leaving Twitter will be hard for some people. It’s long been believed that Twitter is necessary for writers who want to land book deals or sell books. Maybe it is. But who cares? Nobody’s book deal or career is worth another four -- and possibly more -- years of Trump. It just isn’t. People can do what they want, but the thing about Elon Musk is that he probably not only howls along to Everclear’s “Father of Mine,” but is also the type to get extra loud when singing along with the line, “Wasn't easy for me to be a scared white boy in a black neighborhood.”
Do you really want that asshole, whose re-brand of the site was so unsuccessful news outlets still call it “formerly Twitter,” to have your time and attention, let alone the money he gets from advertising inferior products?
The hashtag game is over. It’s time to go.