Social Samosa writer, Sneha Medda, shares her experience of using Twitter after Elon Musk took over giving us a first-hand view through the Gen-Z lens.
It was early 2020, the world was shutting down and I had found a new hobby. This hobby was not kitting or whipping up coffee but it was this birdie called Twitter. A safe place for the future of tomorrow, the Gen-Z, to rant about every minute of inconvenience in their life, from their leaking ceilings to their problematic families, the ‘twelebs’ had found a platform where they were the main characters.
Twitter, for my generation, has been somewhat more important than Instagram and Facebook; here we were able to mindlessly put out our thoughts. This gave birth to the concept of sh*tposting and Gen-Z’s perception towards Twitter started to shape up.
Though there’s no harm done in the Gen-Z way of Tweeting, with time and some character development, these twelebs have evolved from just crying over their first-world problems to actually turning heads and engaging in conversations that matter. And just like any other topic, these groundbreaking conversations are also happening via memes and pop-culture references.
Between a bunch of boycotts and our world population hitting the 8th billion mark, Elon Musk buying out Twitter with his Tesla sales was equally discussed (with memes, obviously) by the Gen-Zers.
We have all been witnessing Musk acting like the toxic s/o (significant other) in our lives with announcing the sudden firing of approximately 7500 employees in a blink of an eye. Like a true red flag character, as soon as he realised how badly he needed them, he was quick on hiring them back, like everything was sunshine and rainbows.
How can we forget when Musk tried to monetize the blue tick and as soon as trolls started creating fake accounts with the verified tick of big shots like a pharma company, Elon pulled an Uno Reverse Card on this plan as well. Anyway, in recent developments, the platform now has like a bajillion different tags that will state if your account is a parody account or not.
When all this chaos and drama was unfolding, like the true comedians that this generation is, Twitter had found its newest and most loved meme. Tweeting and clowning Musk and his decision had become the talk of the town.
As an outsider watching from the sidelines, sipping on tea and consuming the ‘piping hot tea’ on the Twitter-verse was indeed a spectacular experience. It was fun and giggles for a little while, no doubts there, but waking up to Elon Musk’s face plastered on my favourite app was definitely not a sight for the sore eyes.
From what I understand, the youth connected with Twitter because this was a platform where they could rant about their daily life struggles and find their next job – that too in less than 60 words! The Twitter timeline had become the ‘newspaper’ for Gen-Z, which they scrolled through while having breakfast.
But under Elon’s reign, Twitter is slowly turning into a platform that is more concerned about things that can be skipped, under the disguise of revolutionising modern journalism and giving them a voice.
Also Read: Elon Musk takes over Twitter with no holds barred – All you need to know
I am not sure if my vision is blurry or Musk’s words aren’t clear enough but with the ever-changing guidelines, and the uncertainty of the app you truly never know if the app will even exist to see the light of day.
A platform that became the place for free speech, has suddenly become very suffocating. All this makes me wonder, will the Gen-Z stick to Twitter or will they move on to find a better alternative?
If we look at patterns, the youth tends to totally abandon social media platforms when they start acting very toxic. In the last few years, when Facebook’s low-key stalker-ish behaviour of stealing its user’s data made it impossible for the audience to function on the app freely, they dumped it and moved on to the next app. This resulted in Facebook losing half a million global users.
In Twitter’s case, a similar pattern seems to emerge. According to MIT’s recent report, just days after Elon Musk took over Twitter the platform may have lost more than a million users.
Not only its users; in a recent turn of events, Twitter employees have joined hands and decided to mass resign and even Twitter Offices shut down for a day. The reason you ask? Well, at a time when people are religiously pushing the idea of work-life balance and sharing the effects that workplace toxic-ism has on the employee’s mental health, Elon reportedly sent out a mail outlining ‘Twitter 2.0’. This sparkly version of the platform would need its employees to work longer hours with added intensity.
This obviously wasn’t received well and naturally, #RIPTwitter & #GoodbyeTwitter became a trend.
So, is it safe to say that this is just the beginning of the app’s presence fading in thin air among its users? What do you think, if Twitter really does go all ‘Crime Master Gogo’ on us, will its users toss it like a used piece of chewing gum? On November 18, #Orkut started trending on Twitter. This made me reminisce about the good old days. If Instagram is for influencers and Facebook is for boomers, where will Gen-Z go? Who knows maybe Orkut will resurrect from the dead?
Let me know what you think in the comments below. In the meanwhile, go Tweet about a random thought, who knows how long you’ll be able to do that.
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Source: Social Samosa
