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So with the 1 year anniversary of having purchased "X Premium" recently past, I'm going to reflect on a few things about how Xitter has changed over the past year, and decade and change since I was first one here.
This will probably not interest anyone, even the few followers I regularly interact with, but I honestly cannot think of anywhere else to put it, and I will be pinning this post to my page to also give people an idea of what kind of poster I am, for new and potential followers. If you actually care to read, be prepared, as this one will be article length.
I'll begin by saying that I joined twitter to participate in the "culture wars" before they were such a thing. Back when I started this was for me, largely Atheist vs Theist, then it became Atheist vs Atheist, then extreme left vs extreme right, and now everyone slightly right of center vs everyone slightly left. I found the old character limit, and even the new one, awful for saying anything of substance, but like it or not, social media is the new battlefield and even though at the time it was insufferably leftist, this is the battlefield where the war was going on, so in order to influence or even keep up with that battle, I had to be here, so if I ever seem combative, this is why. I have no illusions of seriously changing hearts and minds, but it was a good space to get an idea of what the online public at large was thinking, see what was being argued and sharpen my own convictions, or change my mind when I found a new perspective, and if anyone in the audience comes along the ride, so much the better. To quote @monsterhunter45 , internet arguing is a spectator sport, it's for the benefit of the audience not the person you're debating.
I have since found TwittiX much more useful for keeping up with breaking news than for actual interactions, and for following niche interests. I've also had the privilege of meeting a few new friends and acquaintances on here, as well as reconnecting with some from the old (and in some cases I really mean OLD) internet days.
So now, my impressions since Musk took over what is now X .com. When he first stepped in and started making changes, Elon created something pretty close to what I think twitter was meant to be, a true public square of open discussion and debate. Without the left leaning slant, there was perhaps, for a brief while, some productive talks going on. Yes there were still echo chambers, but they were local and often bled over into public.
Unfortunately Elon's vision didn't align with mine and he truly decided to turn X into the PVP server of social media. In and of itself this wasn't a bad thing, as it was fairly balanced apart from when he himself artificially boosted exposure with retweets and such, however the re-jiggering of the algorithm to use AI to reward rage-bait in the guise of "engagement" turned this into an absolute shithole. Between Indian bots and the algorithm constantly shoving rage bait in my face, it really has become a muckdive.
So why then continue with Premium? Well in short, I like the long article length. Despite all the recent crap, I still find it worthwhile to interact meaningfully, even if these are a minimum of the total volume of tweets that I see or post.
I am going to be making a more conscious effort to have more meaningful interactions on matters of substance that I care about and less on snipes and random bullshit. As much as I enjoy the dopamine hit of a tweet "breaching containment" and hitting thousands or tens of thousands of likes, these are almost always meaningless snark and generate no meaningful discussion. I much prefer to get 10 likes and 3 replies that result in a decent talk, then 10k+ that are nothing but random memes and emojis in response.
It's not in my nature to pass up the chance for snark here and there, but I am going to attempt, for the upcoming year, to focus on productive discussion and not dopamine hits via snarky replies. I invite anyone still live and following me to jump in the discussion, I do listen, learn and sometimes even change my mind.
And if I seem a little combative still, remember I did join for the PVP, and I've spent the majority of my adult life punching and strangling people for a living , or teaching others to do the same. So don't be afraid to tell me to dial it back a bit,
For anyone who read this far, I thank you for taking the time and look forwards to a great, and hopefully more meaningful, 2026 on X with you. I hope you've enjoyed the ride so far.
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