I will not be the first to say that I am finally leaving the social media giant formerly known as Twitter. However, for me, it has been a long time coming and I feel like now is the right time. In May, the API was finally broken enough that direct posting from WP was no longer working. The API also does not allow callbacks to post the feed in WP, which, in my humble opinion, limits audience exposure even more. In July, I was hit by a script error for two days and couldn’t read or access my feed. Several of my older Twitter posts have been lost or no longer redirected correctly. On Monday night, I was browsing through Twitter Spaces and noticed a Q Anon and pro-Jan6 discussion taking place. I frequently receive spam and get followed by inappropriate accounts. All of this is happening while Musk repeatedly promotes far-right and fascist propaganda since taking over in 2022 while blocking journalists and refusing to allow others to block feeds for self-protection. I do not believe he wants to continue promoting the best interests of civil discourse on Twitter, and I no longer wish to be a part of that. This is all on top of the fact that there are now limits to DMs, 600 post views, and a constant redefinition of what will be available tomorrow.

Some of the few bright spots left are those connected to friends, news agencies, fellow educators, and NASA. Due to the close ties between SpaceX and Twitter, each Dragon Crew and mission receives great coverage through the feed. However, many Instagram feeds are posted and then shared on Twitter. My connection to the Adobe Edu Creatives group remains strong, and the how-to videos generated by members are an excellent way to share with students and staff what I’m doing in the classroom. However, it’s only a matter of time until PLNs move to Facebook, LinkedIn, or Threads. Also, my teacher friends from around the world still use Twitter because Threads is not yet a global platform.

Going forward, I have no idea what my footprint will look like on Twitter by the end of the year, but I imagine it will continue to be smaller. I haven’t directly posted in several weeks and only want to see what a few friends are tweeting. Most of my friends and groups are reposting tweets to other platforms. I know I will continue to send my posts from this site into my Twitter feed via scripts in IFTTT, but I don’t know how much longer that would be worth it. My click-through data is showing a sharp decline from Twitter traffic. I will continue to allow my IFTTT scripts to run and repost images from NASA and the word of the day for the remainder of the year because that is at least positive posts for the greater good. I will probably redirect those scripts to either this feed or my Threads feed soon. I will respond to people who direct message me inside of Twitter. However, from this day forward, I will no longer actively seek to post on Twitter directly anymore. I cannot continue to support a social media app that is intentionally spreading discord, lies, and promoting violent dissidence.

This podcast from The Guardian Australia is a great listen and really encapsulates what I’m thinking about the complete collapse of a social media giant that once connected the world to journalists and current events as they happen.

This post has been updated since it’s first post to include links to any future posts in my Goodbye Twitter feed and I have updated the header graphic to no longer include the Twitter logo.

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