An observation:

After being off X (I still wince calling it that) for a full year, it feels strange using it as part of my job now. I still see a bunch of people I remember there who haven’t changed much, and of course a new crop of users who don’t know what it was like before The Ruining. The spam and bots never stopped, and in fact, it seems worse than it’s ever been, even as observed from a blue check brand account. I make a point of getting in and out quickly, only staying as long as I need to, checking in on post activity, scanning through some trending topics, and avoiding getting sucked into scrolling too far down where the awfulness lives.

There’s been a big surge in meme coins again. People are excited about some new shiny thing that will be forgotten in a year. Traders are posting their charts and making insane promises that will probably make a lot of people very poor.

There’s obviously more racism and xenophobia than I remember from even one year ago, and much of it seems to be stoked by the new guy running the show. When I was on what used to be Twitter, the conversation never focused on the daily musings of the founders. Occasionally, they would chime in on something, but otherwise, discussions were mainly driven by the users. There was a lot wrong with it, but I don’t remember it feeling as psychologically oppressive and draining as it does to me now, even after only spending a short time on it per day. I now feel no connection to something that was a part of my daily life for 15 years. In some ways, it’s a bit like breaking up with someone you’ve grown apart from, but still running into them constantly, and hoping you can avoid having to talk to them for very long.

All that to say, I’m grateful to have found a better place among my fellow Nostriches.

GN 🌙 PV 🫂 Keep it weird. 🤙