The all-consuming topic in my life this week has been Twitter and it's probable demise. It seems silly to let a social media site have such an impact on my life, but Twitter is more than just a website. It's a world-wide information center. And it's been the easiest way for me to make friends.
I've enjoyed the ease with which I've made those friends. I've enjoyed the fact that they are all in one place. I've enjoyed that we can have fun, whether it be talking about pets, music, books, and pretty significantly, tv shows like the Golden Girls.
Now it seems we are all preparing for the end. We've started accounts on other sites and we've started letting everyone know. If some of my favorite Twitter friends haven't mentioned other accounts, I start to worry that when Twitter ends I'll never see them (and their pets) again.
We all know endings. We've graduated high schools. Left jobs. Moved to new towns. But this is different. We aren't just ending, we're scattering like dandelion seeds blown across the yard by a strong wind.
For now Twitter is still running, and some say it won't shut down. But for many of us, the idea of Twitter that we've lived with for years is over. New management, decisions based on whim instead of good business sense, massive reduction in force all mean that the Twitter we know is gone. And that means, like the dandelion in my yard, you can find pieces of me in other places on the Web. Mastodon, CounterSocial, Facebook, Instagram are just a few of my new haunts. Maybe I'll find my Twitter friends there.
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