Twitter turned 20 and I feel nothing

Because I can already hear the comments: Yes, I’m still on X. I don’t spend as much time there as I did a decade ago, but it’s still quite a lot of time, an unhealthy amount, if I’m being honest. My job is to report on social media companies, so I keep (doom)scrolling. That’s what I tell myself anyway.

A few of my favorite posters are still around. Dril’s still got it. The memes are still, occasionally, good, even though X’s recommendation algorithm seems to prefer pointing me toward endless AI slop, boring hot takes from thirsty mid-tier tech execs and blatant engagement bait. X’s algorithm — what little we can learn about it, anyway — now relies on Grok’s predictions about what you’ll like.The same Holocaust-loving Grok that has spewed racism and referred to itself as MechaHitler and declared Elon Musk “the single greatest person in modern history.” The same Grok that allegedly generated thousands of images of child abuse material. Hey @grok is that true?

X is not Twitter but it’s also not not-Twitter. Last year, an online marketplace startup bought the 560-pound Twitter bird that once adorned the company’s San Francisco office and blew it up in a Nevada desert surrounded by Tesla CyberTrucks as part of an elaborate publicity stunt. Dumb? Yes. But also a somehow fitting adieu for “Larry.”

It’s been 20 years since Jack Dorsey sent the first-ever tweet, which was never even a good tweet anyway. It’s been five years, by the way, since he turned that tweet into an NFT (remember NFTs??) and auctioned it for nearly $3 million. It’s now functionally worthless. Another chapter in Dorsey’s confusing, complicated legacy.