I think Twitter had and still has a design which potentially makes for very lively and ideologically transparent view of the world. You can see who thinks what and why, at a glance.
I still enjoy and view Twitter a lot. It continues to be a way I most easily discover new things. I won't say it has declined too much for me personally, except obviously the ads are now scraping the bottom of the barrel, as Paris Marx explains, a sign it's become unsustainable. The people I miss most were mostly banned pre-Musk, though I have no use for Trump (whose ban is officially lifted now, but still spends his time elsewhere mostly).
Moving to video services like Instagram and TikTok means you have to endure hours of crap before you can get to the heart of what people actually think. IOW, it puts everyone in their own Silo you have to be part of to understand at all. And there's no easy way to understand anyone or anything else. Ultimately they're not about ideas at all, only identity and branding.
Although they use it, I don't think the oligarchs and intelligence services that run the world want people to think or understand other people, only the dominant narrative they promote.
So losing Twitter is a loss for the people, a loss for thinking and ideas, and a win for oligarchy and authoritarian control.
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