The Good and Bad of X
More than a year into Elon Musk’s Twitter ownership, it’s safe to say it’s been an eventful journey. Last month, Musk generated another wave of controversy at an NYT conference by publicly going after former Twitter / X advertisers for pulling away from the platform. The saga brought a renewed look at what X is becoming. Enough time has passed with Musk at the helm that we are able to point out genuine improvements and problems found with X.
We will begin with the genuinely positive developments. We will then follow that with the bad and the mixed bag.
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The Text Social Wars Will Be Overrated
The video and audio wars have been unfolding for the past decade. In video, we have various battles being waged in paid, free, and algorithm-driven verticals. In audio, podcasts are being used as a way of improving music’s lack of attractive streaming economics for the distributor. These battles, including all the accompanying ups and downs, have been well-telegraphed and chronicled. Set within this content landscape, very little has been said about text-based platforms. That changed when Elon Musk bought Twitter.
Prior to Musk, Twitter was the perennial “how to fix” tech story. Pundits and analysts couldn’t resist sharing their ideas for how Twitter can grow its user base and generate more advertising revenue to better compete with its larger peers. The company’s ~225 million active users made it look niche compared to Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube, each with 2 billion users. None of the ideas worked. Twitter spent years floundering. It was Wall Street’s lukewarm reception of Twitter relative to its peers, in addition to Twitter not having a dual class share structure, that allowed Musk to step in and buy the company.
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Elon Musk Isn’t Twitter’s Problem
Elon Musk continues to make unforced errors as he molds Twitter into his liking. Unnecessary controversies and illogical strategy moves are not only increasing stress and anxiety among some Twitter users, but also clouding what Musk has done correctly. Yes, there actually have been a few positive changes such as the “What’s happening” editorial trends coming to an end.
In finding the top tech story in 2022, the Musk/Twitter saga makes the short list.
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Elon Musk Buys Twitter
It’s been quite the April for Elon Musk. Within just three weeks, Musk went from disclosing that he had spent months quietly amassing a 9% stake in Twitter, to accepting and then turning down a Twitter board seat, to finally having Twitter’s board accept his hostile takeover bid for $44 billion.
Musk buying Twitter is a big deal for a few reasons:
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Elon Musk vs. the Twitter Algorithm
Earlier today, Elon Musk revealed that he had quietly amassed a 9% stake in Twitter valued at nearly $4 billion. The news kicked off a whirlwind of speculation as to Musk’s plans. While the investment was deemed passive, that distinction has already proved meaningless given some of Musk’s recent tweets.
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NFTs and Crypto Are a Backlash to Social Media Wrongs
It is too easy to get caught in the weeds of a topic and in the process lose sight of the big picture. That scenario is occurring with both NFTs and crypto.
At a very simple level, the promise found with NFTs and crypto is said to be about empowering people. Instead of figuring out if NFTs and crypto meet that promise, there is more value found in understanding why such a promise exists in the first place. What tech development has harmed user empowerment to such a degree that NFTs and crypto are said to be needed to put things back on track? My suspicion is the answer will contain a great deal of insight regarding the future.
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Chronological Feeds Won’t “Fix” Social Media
The Facebook Files saga took an unexpected turn last week as Frances Haugen, the former Facebook product manager responsible for providing the WSJ a treasure trove of leaked internal documents, made her public unveiling as the Facebook whistleblower.
In what is still difficult to wrap my mind around, in the span of just two days, Haugen went from having her first public interview on 60 Minutes to sitting down for a three-hour hearing in front of Congress. Haugen went so far as to unveil something of a “public oversight of social media” agenda. Based on the well-orchestered PR aspect of it all, if you told me that she was next running for Congress, I wouldn’t think you were crazy. We seem to be experiencing something of a renaissance for the corporate whistleblower. There is a story to be told here, but that won’t be the subject of this essay. Instead, the supposed “fixes” that Haugen suggested Congress could apply to Facebook caught my attention.
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We Have a Growing Social Media Problem on Our Hands
Ongoing issues related to the pandemic involving variants and vaccination rates are now leading to what seems like some kind of turning point for today’s digital town squares (Facebook, Twitter, YouTube etc.)
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The Rise of Digital Town Squares
Humans are social creatures. We don’t want to avoid social interaction. There is a gravitation that pulls us together. One characteristic that has been part of the exchange of ideas in the physical world is a social construct to push fringe ideas and opinions to the edges – out of town squares and into back alleys.
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