Twitter's death spiral? I gotta say it will free up some of my time.

I'm not a big Tweeter, but I do have a Twitter account and comment pretty regularly. I joined a while back, but didn't actually suit up until the 2000 election or thereabouts. I've enjoyed being on it. Among other things, I reconnected with two former colleagues and a guy I went to grammar school with and haven't laid eyes on in over 50 years. And I've made a few Twitter friends.

I have a modest number of followers - hovering between 865 and 870 - and enjoy seeing what those who I follow (a bit over 1,000) have to say. I have some name brand followers - Nancy Sinatra, Joyce Carol Oates - and follow a lot more "big name" tweeters (e.g., historian Michael Beschloss, Barack Obama. I follow a lot of political pundits (amateur and professional), a guy who takes beautiful photographs of the outer Cape, a couple of cute dog accounts, and someone who posts  pictures of Boston

On occasion, I've racked up a goodly number of "likes" - my record being a crack I made about Bill Barr. I was also banned - sent to "Twitmo" for a couple of days when someone reported another crack I'd made about Bill Barr. (For the life of me, I can't remember which crack got the thousand+ likes and which got me kicked off.)

Mostly, I thumb through Twitter multiple times a day looking for news, for comfort from those in my echo-chamber, and for snark that gives me an occasional laugh.

I waste way too much time on Twitter. (It is addictive.) So I've been following with a slightly open eye (mostly via Tweets) what's been going on with not-so-boy, not-so-wonder Elon Musk since he took the company over a few weeks ago. Which has been going one long cra spree, that's for sure.

For all his reputation for genius, it really does appear that Musk doesn't know what he's doing, other than flushing billions down the toilet and making stupid remarks.

It was no surprise that one of his first acts was to fire the top executives and the board, giving himself free rein. His next step was to lay about half of Twitter's 7500 employees off. Fell swoop, full sweep. (Twitter, having figured out that they were essential to operations, has since called back some of those who were let go.) He followed up the massive dump of employees by going one step further, and getting rid of most of the company's contractors. 

Employees and contractors for the most part found out they were without a job when they were shut out of email and apps like Slack.

This sounds heartless, that's because it is - but there's always a danger, especially in a tech company, that if you give any notice, someone may crash and burn the place on the way out the door.

Not content with getting rid of half the labor force, Musk decided to issue a back to the office edict, and is requiring any employee who wants to stay an employee to sign a pledge to "working long hours at high intensity." If they don't sign by 5 p.m. today, they're gone. Only the "hardcore" will survive.

Musk is also showing off his puerile, a-hole-ishness in other ways.

One employee, a techie, engaged with Musk via Twitter, trying to explain to Musk that he was wrong about something technical and suggesting that they DM about it, rather than publicly go back and forth on Twitter. He was fired, although if you looked at his exchange with the Great Musk, it was a pretty typical, likely on-the-spectrum communication with lots of info and few niceties.

Then there was the group of employees who were venting spleen about execs/Musk on Slack. This sort of venting has apparently always been part of the Twitter culture. No more. Word is that twenty or so employees were fired, via email, for violating a company policy that no one knew existed. And which very well may not. Until the other day.

Ah, Twitter. Ah, Musk.

While it has had profitable years, Twitter has a colossal burn rate, so the layoffs have not been surprising (other than the magnitude), nor have the rumors of bankruptcy.

When he bought Twitter - for $44B (imagine that!) - Musk "saddled" the company with debt AND promised that he was committed to both making/keeping the platform a free speech environment, while also trying to continue to eradicate hate speech and lies. He's held up at least some of his bargain here: he hasn't invited Trump back on. But the reaction to Musk's blundering around has mostly been negative. And the ration of brutal snark and shit he's received (much of it from Tweeps) has been huge.

I'm pretty certain there was plenty of bloat at Twitter, plenty of fat to cut, but Musk got rid of most of the "content moderators" who are dedicated to keeping the platform honest. The company has also fiddled around with its "Blue Check" system, through which accounts with certain prominence can be verified. So if you see Barack Obama with a blue check, you know that the tweet you're looking at is from him.  Now it's the Wild West on there. The information is less vetted and less safe. And some of what's been happening is ludicrous, and just hilarious. (More on that for another day.)

Musk is also toying with the idea of charging users. (If so, I'm gone. I have fun on Twitter, but not $8 a month worth of it.) And there are fears that the company will try to monetize its subscribers in other ways, like selling personal info.

Meanwhile, because of the uptick in impersonations, BS, and general clownery, many advertisers are walking away, leaving Twitter in an ever-more vicarious position.

While I'm keeping a bit of an eye on the goings on, I'm not obsessing about Twitter's fate.

I feel bad for those who've been let go, whether permanent employees or contractors. Getting laid off is never fun, and getting laid off around the holidays makes things even worse, as many hiring operations pretty much shut down after Thanksgiving. Plus other tech giants are also paring down, which means the outfits where a Twitter-ex might hope to find employment are also cutting back.

Still, having Twitter on your resume can't be a bad thing. Although if content moderators are out of work, and Facebook/Meta is also getting rid of tons of employees, the most obvious place to find work may not be all that obvious.

When all is said and done, if this is Twitter's death spiral, so be it. Others on Twitter - especially those with major followings who use their presence to build their brand (not my jam!) - are exploring the other Tweet-like platforms there.

I'm not. 

If Twitter's going, going, gone, I plan on taking a break from doom scrolling, from making pithy comments, from checking my "likes."

I plan on using my new found time wisely. Reading (something longer than 280 characters) and writing (something longer than 280 characters). Maybe the novel in me will finally make its way out!