My feelings about X (formerly Twitter)

This will be short, but I just wanted to rant and vent here because this is my space. I'll use X or Twitter interchangeably throughout the post, but they represent the same entity.

Loss of integrity

Since Elon's takeover of Twitter, a lot has changed. But let me tell you this: I love Twitter, or what's left of a place that once was great. I joined Twitter around 15 years ago, and since then, I've been a very active user there. I have around 40k followers, all of them organically. People follow me because they find what I share interesting. Some are close friends; some are from specific communities that find my hobbies and professional life interesting.

I no longer find it joyful to be on Twitter. It has lost my trust. I feel like I visit the site because I'm addicted to it. This is a leftover habit from when all my friends and people I've been following shared everyday information that was funny, useful, or honest. Honest is the word I think I can describe what's missing from Twitter. It's now a place where people lie, artificially write controversial ideas and write shitposts because Elon decided that a count view of a Tweet is worth money. So now everyone is optimizing their time spent on X to write tweets that are just attention-seeking. There is no honesty anymore. There is no more the random person from a random city who writes their feelings because they just wanted it. Even if they did, X won't show them to us unless you pay for them (which I also do, and I think it's a big mistake).

The Fall of X

Here is the list of random things that annoy me and were better before Elon's takeover:

• Bots and spam got worse. Every single one of my tweets has the same spam tweet. It's been a year, and there have been zero improvements.
• The quality of the ads is the worst I've seen so far. Twitter knows my feelings, interests, and experiences better than any other social media, yet it's the worst at showing me ads I want to click. In comparison, Instagram (Meta) or Google does a way better job.
• Constant controversy. Every single tweet I wrote (whether it's Turkish or English) is like a magnet for a shitty person to come and teach me a lesson. Most of them never read what I write, and most of them also curse. Twitter's algorithm has changed so much that I no longer have intellectual and satisfactory conversations with random people. This is not true on Threads, Reddit, Forums, or any other media.
• The number of low-quality video accounts. Many such accounts constantly post videos that are funny or interesting under the disguise that they bring any value. Even though I continuously press the "Not interested in this post" tile, the Twitter algorithm doesn't care.
• Like the previous one, half of my timeline is "Poll Accounts". These accounts constantly ask questions, and they only do so to increase their tweets' view count. When I see one, I immediately know they are asking, not because they are interested, but because they want to create some artificial debate to increase the view count of the tweet.
• Replies to most of my tweets no longer show up in Notification. This problem has been ongoing for months, and I've started missing very obvious and critical discussions. I have to check for replies manually. The notification tab became a joke.
• X demotes any tweet that contains a URL. This breaks any intellectual discussion because people no longer share exciting bits from the Internet. I know this post will also be buried in the shadows of Twitter.
• Weird UI changes that make using Twitter less joyful. The sidebar is useless because they decided to put every new feature there, even though I have zero interest in communities, Grok, lists, etc.
• Remember when Elon decided to hide the URL titles on tweet summaries? People would share links, but you wouldn't know what they were until you clicked on them. Changes like this question my commitment to this platform all the time.
• My audience has significantly changed. Now whenever I post something, I have to think twice because I'm almost certain to receive a mean reply or a troll who will constantly shitpost. Instead of people who want to talk with me, some people want to see my demise. This is tied to the view count changes they made. Trolls actively engage by shitposting to create big fur and debates. Since I have a large following, they know the algorithm will boost whatever reply I add. So it's a feedback loop that lives on from troll posting. It's very tiring.

So this is what visiting Twitter feels like. It's tiring and exhausting and no longer enjoyable. But I have also learned quite a bit, made great friends, and know I can still reach some people. In the end, I've realized that I'm struggling to keep up with the good parts of Twitter when the bad parts are overwhelming and increase over time.

What's next?

From now on, I will significantly decrease my contributions to X (formerly Twitter). I might post occasionally, which will probably be a link to my blog post or a few honest questions/insights. I'm not leaving, of course, but I won't be active there anymore. If you still want to keep in touch with me, I'll share my ideas and feelings on this blog (more often than before).

I've been writing here for almost a decade, and It makes me happy that I have control over my content. Second, you can follow me on Instagram, where I share my day-to-day life via videos or photos: @fatih.arslan_ This is more personal, but I share there more often, especially about Industrial Design, Watches, Cars, Coffee, Books, and many other things.

Thanks for tuning in, and thanks to all my friends and followers who have been with me for all the years. I hope we can have more meaningful conversations in the future.