Twitter as we know it is ending

And this is how the end will arrive

People announce they’re deleting their accounts. Many vow to find their followers on some other social media platform. Others exchange addresses and handles and promise to follow their friends in the new online places.

The hope is the same community that existed on Twitter will rise again in a new setting, and we can pick up where we left off.

The problem is it isn’t going to happen. Even if a new community is established on another social media platform, it won’t be the same community at all. The community we built on Twitter will be gone. Is gone.

So many people have already left, deleted their accounts, leaving wistful good-bye messages, or no message at all. And for those of us who haven’t yet left, there is mostly grief.

Real grief, the same feeling you have when someone or something dies. That’s because something has died: the community we built on Twitter is gone for good.

This has happened to many of us before: at the end of a workshop or retreat or, if you were one of those lucky kids, summer camp. Every time I was in one of those intense community experiences, we always earnestly traded addresses with each other as we said good-bye. We promised we would keep in touch, even while knowing we wouldn’t.

I still have sheets of paper filled with contact information from workshops and retreats over the years. I stumble across those papers now and then and remember how wonderful that week or weekend was, and how sincerely we promised to keep in touch. Even though we didn’t.

Twitter has been like that, but the difference is the community has been building itself for years. For me, it’s been almost 14 years, so the loss and pain are real. I’ve made true friends that I’m as close to as my IRL friends. (IRL is “in real life” for those who might not know).

Feeling sad about the demise of Twitter is appropriate, not because Twitter itself is dying, or at least changing. We are sad because we’re losing each other.

You can still find me on Twitter @RaimaLarter but also, now, on Mastodon @raimalarter@writing.exchange.