Top Tweets for #TwitterFix

Some of you may have noticed, many probably didn’t. Earlier this week: X pushed an update which changed the UX of your mobile device timeline, confirmed by the owner of this business in a post published on 11/27 at 12:56 AM ET.  For accounts who follow whatever the unknown minimum # is, the ‘Following’ tab now displays a dropdown arrow. If you click it, you are prompted to ‘Sort following’ where you are offered two options to choose: ‘Most recent’, and what the current default is (for me, tested on four different accounts based in the US) ‘Popular’.  The ‘Popular’ feed is defined, in the same post published by the owner of the company, as “Posts of people you follow are now ranked by Grok.”  What this means is your default mobile app ‘Following’ tab is now going to display content to you the same way the ‘For You’ timeline does, but it will be exclusive to people you follow as opposed to users from both inside AND outside your network that the algorithm thinks you will enjoy or engage with. I’m writing this today because I think is the one change to the platform’s utility which will finally cause niche communities on here to go from an endangered species to extinct. Let me first start by reminding everyone what made Twitter/makes X different than all of the other social media platforms throughout time: utility. You will be seeing this word often throughout this post, because with all due respect to Reddit: this has always been the place you go to react to breaking news, current events, live sports, award shows, big tech keynote reveals, etc. You chose here because you knew the moment you loaded the app, the perishable content you were looking to consume would be presented in a chronological format without having to apply any additional clicks or opening of separate tabs. This simple accessibility incentivized authentic engagement and community formation around any particular event. Because my particular audience is mostly following me for NBA content and/or Live Police Chases, I will use these examples to elaborate further.  In 2020: when the NBA returned to play after the COVID pandemic suspension, the Los Angeles Clippers committed a basketball atrocity blowing a 3-1 series lead against the Denver Nuggets. They didn’t just lose the final game, they were horrifically embarrassed. It is the last time I can remember when no matter what team you root for, whatever sport you watch, or even if you had no clue what was going on: the world logged on simultaneously, and unified to crack jokes at the Clippers’ expense.  I recall distinctly how many times I saw an “OMG” or “LOL” or “GTFOH” tweet pop up on the timeline and knew exactly what they were referencing when Paul George’s shot hit the side of the backboard. “OMG”, “LOL”, “GTFOH” have zero evergreen value. They are reactions which require context of monoculture consumption, and once the game ended the only reason to engage with posts of this or similar simpleness was to read the comments. However, when/shortly-after being published, they served a significant groupthink purpose. With the new Following tab updates being deployed this week, these posts and these moments will no longer be seen by anyone who does not take the time to change their settings from “Popular” to “Most recent”. “OMG” is going to require serious interaction to make the “Popular” timeline in the first place, and even if it ends up on there: by the time a “Popular” timeline user sees it: the moment will have passed as the feed is not chronological.  I read something like that hours later, or a very time-sensitive joke: and I would be nothing other than confused. Think of how many live event communities there are in the world. When there is a video game demo debut streamed on YouTube Live, the comments populate in real-time on the right side of the screen, while the comments below the video are sorted by popularity once the live stream concludes. (continued in next thread below)