R.I.P Twitter

I have been delaying penning this post for as long as I could. Despite watching Elon Musk slowly strip away every sign of the iconic blue bird, a part of me hoped and continues to hope that someday Twitter as I knew it will return. However, when earlier this week, the icon on my phone changed into the controversial black ugly X, it is time to say goodbye.  

I have witnessed the death of multiple social media platforms over my lifetime. It began with MSN messenger, Orkut, Myspace and even though Facebook still exists, my association with it has been long dormant. None of the demises caused me any pain. Yet with Twitter, it is hard to not shed a tear. I am not ready to see it go. Over the past few months, as the debate on whether users will leave Twitter raged on, I stayed. I stayed because Twitter has been an integral part of my professional life and will continue to be. I stayed because everyone else I knew stayed. I stayed because X still mostly does what Twitter used to.

I am not a social media junkie. I am not on TikTok nor was I the first to jump on to the many fleeting fancies that have emerged over the last few years. While I long owned a Twitter account (not unlike my current Facebook account), apart from a few early embarrassing tweets, I never understood it’s potential until I attended my first SHRM conference in 2016. To say that I was taken aback by the power of trending hashtags is an understatement. Within the first hour, I had sent 10 tweets and was still lagging as compared to every other peer ‘influencer’ in the room.

Fast forward to seven years later, I have participated in multiple tweet chats, promotion campaigns for conferences, connected with peer HR professionals around the world, learnt about breaking news and carved a tiny spot for myself on the internet thanks to this platform. Acquaintances formed via Twitter have translated into life outside social media and termed as ‘tweeps’, these people have influenced my career trajectory like no one else has. While most people view LinkedIn as the primary professional platform, Twitter allowed me to see individuals as professionals as well as real people. In may ways, Twitter is the platform that brings together your professional and life outside work like no other platform does. Where else would I share both my latest blogs as well as goof-ups?

As I continue to struggle to make peace with the fact that I have to say goodbye, I take some solace in the fact that the platform still exists. It still does what Twitter did and my tweeps are still around. Will we ever be able to campaign to bring back tweet and re-tweet? I do not know. But can we create enough internet fossils to ensure the next few generations know Twitter existed? We sure can!