I was at Twitter's funeral
Plus, an article that made me cry
Twitter is dead. Those of us on the site Friday watched the coffin get lowered into the ground. Even if it doesn't catastrophically break (as the tech folks are predicting) or get shut down by the billionaire baby himself, the Twitter we've known is already gone.
Most of what's been written about Musk's destruction of Twitter has focused too much on what it means for media and tech people. I'll really miss it. But there is one really important reason 'regular' people (those of you healthy enough to not have Twitter accounts) should care about it dying.
It is this: Twitter was the only digital platform where you could share your expertise without needing to show your face or have design skills. It was the only platform that let you post just words.
That made it really powerful for academics, subject matter experts, people with lived experience to share their knowledge publicly. Get what they know out there. And grow a following or be discoverable based on that knowledge alone, without also needing to be hot, or charismatic on camera, or handy with Canva, or have an eye for photography, or have a nice sounding voice. It's much quicker and easier to send a series of highly informative tweets on your pet subject than it is to turn that into an aesthetically-pleasing Instagram carousel or a video for YouTube and TikTok.
What does that have to do with you? Twitter made it really easy for journalists like me to find experts and academics to provide important insights, and bring that to you. The knowledge shared by very intelligent people on that platform often provided crucial context in the researching phase of a piece, before I'd even written a word. It's how I (and in turn, you) learned brutal climate truths from Ketan Joshi; how to unpack fraudulent ivermectin studies from Gideon Meyerowitz-Katz; how universities undermine contract staff from Fahad Ali; the relentlessness of Zionist lobbying from Jennine Khalik; the true experience of poverty in Australia from Kristin O'Connell.
The level of analysis on complex topics provided by passionate specialists on Twitter every day for free was genuinely mind-blowing. That does not happen on any other platform.
The changes already introduced on the New Twitter will make it harder to find relevant experts – or at least, the ones who don't have the time, extra skills or looks (harsh but true) to be heard on other platforms. Which I'm going to assume is most experts. And it's all video now, the hardest format of all. They will instead be drowned out by those who will pay to be heard. In the end, it will be probably only be the web3 and cryptocurrency evangelists (not necessarily experts) who remain, endlessly hyping each other up.
And so, the media will increasingly have to fall back on their existing relationships with the usual suspects. That means more of the same takes and perspectives. Less interesting ideas. Less diversity of ideas, honestly. It sounds so dramatic, but the death of old Twitter will directly lead to worse news content for all of us.
So, yeah. For smart, thoughtful, curious people like you and I, it's sad. If you've got thoughts on what might come next, I'd love to hear them – reply to this email & fill me in.
– CrystalFounder & Chief of Everything at Zee Feed
Good stuff on the site rn:
"As the quest for self-acceptance and growth often feels like a hard-fought battle, we can find ourselves in a toxic cycle that ends by reinforcing the shame and inferiority we might have felt to begin with. Because what is ‘better’, really? When will you have arrived there?" CLICK HERE TO READ.
And a couple more:
Content I loved this week 💭
Every Sunday I share content from around the web that made me think, smile, or have an aha! moment. Here are this week's goodies:
Quiet Part Loud on SpotifyVery cool & creepy horror story by Jordan Peele's production company, Monkeypaw. The premise is: disgraced rightwing radio host pivots to true crime. Starts covering a cold case involving a group of Muslim teens who disappeared after 9/11. Looks like a hate crime at first, but soon he realises... it's not 👹
Goddamn bloody adult: Jacqui Lambie on The MonthlyThis profile of Senator Jacqui Lambie really challenged how I see her. It just won an award at the Walkley's (aka the Australian journalism Oscars) so you know it's good.
The Landlord & the Tenant on Pro Publica"A young mother rents a house near Milwaukee. The previous tenant tells her, 'Baby, they shouldn’t have let you move in.'" An absolutely heartbreaking piece of journalism that will stay with me for the rest of my life.
Sam Bankman-Fried and the fall of a crypto empire on the Planet Money podcastPlanet Money is often one of the only podcasts I feel can be trusted to unpack complex finance-y things with honesty & no ulterior motive. This is a great, simple breakdown of the FTX collapse.
