justin akan-etuk

What made the twitter algo so good was that it was primarily dominated by ordinary people. Some innocuous tweets from Joe Schmo would be some of the funniest or enlightening things you’ve read, there was insight to the human pysche. The team at X I believe doesn’t entirely understand this. In its infancy “journalists” were few and far between and influencers were almost nonexistent. The posts were from people like you and me. There were shitposters, artists, smart people, stupid people, and schizophrenics all telling you how they really felt, and it was beautiful. Twitter is powerful, it draws people in, but the reason it doesn’t feel the same anymore is because everyone is trying to sell you something, a product or idea. Instead of escapism to the last town square, the equivalent of a Roman forum we now have a place that feels just as dreary as the rest of the world. It’s all an ad from cyberpunk. It’s what watching the news used to feel like, all danger and dread. Instead of the people and the words they’re saying we have binary code, numbers go brrrr. The team has no idea what people want to see, they amplify things that get the most clicks, piss the most people off, get the most people to start fighting each other in the comments. A great example of this was their attempt at a “bangers” account which was all engagement slop, and that’s not what keeps people coming back. It just ain’t the same anymore.