Twitter's Dead, Move On

Published 2022-04-25

So, as you may have read, Elon Musk has finally suceeded in buying Twitter, or at least it's close enough for it to not matter. This being the case, I cannot recommend enough for you to entirely stop using Twitter if it is possible. Seriously. This motherfucker wants to privatise Twitter. He's another Silicon Valley douche trying to ruin the Internet. And the best response to the shitshow is to not partake in it.

If you don't know why this is terrible, here's a few to begin with:

• It makes him more money
• He is notoriously up his own arse and will block and report anyone who disagrees with him
• Claims to support free speech... whilst actually meaning he supports racism
• Has used his Twitter account multiple times for stock/crypto manipulation
• He's a cunt

So, that all being said: what are the alternatives to Twitter? To name a few:

Reddit

Yeah, okay, yuck it up, but I'm serious; whilst Reddit may have it's own slew of issues such as a general lack of braincells, a substandard level of self-awareness on display from most users, and most damning, it's own involvement with NFTs. The main benefit of Reddit is that it's extremely easy to find people who like the same things that you do; however, this can also be it's downfall. Frankly, there's been times where I've lurked on subreddits that are related to some of my favourite franchises, and it creates a pit in my stomach. Although, the same can be said of the Twitter communities of said franchises, too; if anything, Reddit still makes me want to dry heave less frequently. To access it, though, I would personally recommend using a hosted instance of Libreddit - the one that I have linked to above is an instance hosted via catgirl.cloud - also a hoster of a few other alternate sites for YouTube and, funnily enough, Twitter.

Do it your damn self!

Yep, time to scream this one from the rooftops again. You want a good place to express yourself, post your thoughts, feelings, pictures, and all that shite? Get your own website. Hell, you don't even need to self-host off of your computer, nor do you need to pay. Just get that shit running through GitHub pages. I can attest that it is far better and far more engaging to write a post that isn't put under the arduous limit of 120 characters - 240 if you have more money than sense. This one's a bit advanced, as it will require you to at least learn a little bit of HTML, even if you use something such as WordPress, or if you really fancy learning the nitty-gritty, using Sadness's guides to make your own site from scratch, start to finish. This way, the only issues with your website are... well, your own. Don't like a certain element of your website? Change it. Want something new? Make it. It's a fun process, although not one suited for everybody, which brings me onto my final suggestion:

Mastodon

Yes, as briefly mentioned in the aforementioned website article, Mastodon is an open-source, node-based Twitter alternative. And it kicks arse. It's basically just asking the loaded question: "What if Twitter, but good?" Indeed, Mastodon is an extremely great alternative if you want all of the okay-ness of Twitter with none of the bullshit. There are many communities to Mastodon, and when you sign up, you pick one of the communities in order to form your identity - sort of like whoever your email provider is bunging "theirname.com" on the end of your email address. However, you can still seamlessly talk to, follow, and otherwise interact with people from other communities with no hassle - you can even move your account to a different community at a later date, if you wish. And one great part - most good Mastodon communities will have active moderation against racism, sexism and transphobia. Yeah. You know how Twitter says that they do that? And then they don't do that, whilst nurturing that behaviour that they seemingly want to abolish? Yeah, most Mastodon community moderators actually give a shit about people instead of entertaining a nebulous force of investors, so if you're a cunt to any minority, get fucked, matey. That being said, however, you may still discuss anything from cat pictures all the way up to highbrow political shit. Now, the highbrow political shit ain't really my bag. However, shitposting very much is. You can find me here.

So, hopefully, that should somewhat clear up a few options that you could jump ship to, should you want to take the plunge and reject Twitter. Which I would highly recommend doing! It's greatly liberating, and will hopefully improve your online experience, as you can seperate yourself from the swathes of children worshipping Minecraft or whatever annoying bullshit's going on now.