In November of 2022, Elon Musk became the new owner of social media platform Twitter. Many people have called this the “death” of Twitter.
One reason people proclaim the platform’s death is that Musk has capitalized on the highly coveted blue check mark that signifies a user is verified. Verification used to be an honor limited to mostly celebrities and public figures.
Musk proposed an eight dollar per month subscription service to allow users to buy the coveted verification status and more with “Twitter Blue.” Although this version of Twitter was retracted soon after its announcement, people are still claiming the platform was destroyed. In my eyes, whether Musk is the owner or not, Twitter has been dying for a long time.
I vividly remember going through various safety presentations in the 5th grade; alcohol safety, drug safety and online safety. During the safety presentation, the guest speaker questioned us on our own internet habits. Did we use any social media platforms? I used Instagram and Facebook, both of which were considered cool at my school.
Twitter was a different story. My classmates and I thought Twitter was boring and useless. Out of our 20 person class, only one person had Twitter. They were also the only kid with a smartphone at the time. To this day, I am still yet to ever use Twitter.
Twitter has always lacked fun filters like Instagram and the ability to text without a phone number like Snapchat. Twitter simply feels like texting to the public.
As a college student Twitter still lacks appeal. I asked a group of ten friends and only one said they actually had Twitter. The platform really is dying out, not necessarily because of Musk, but because of the evolution of social media.
Twitter does not have the popularity to live on the modern internet and with today’s social media users. Twitter has been on the decline for a long time, and for current users, Musk becoming the new owner seems to be the final nail in the coffin.
The deactivation of the official Twitter account is a bad omen; Twitter is living it’s final days. Generation Z and influencers started the end, and now Musk is finishing it out.
RIP Twitter 2006-2022.