twitter moan #307

Twitter has gotten so ugly lately. Seven years ago it was a fun, quirky, relaxed environment where you could trade droll non sequiturs with a small group of internet friends. But that wasn't making anyone any money so it needed to be constantly, incrementally "improved." Now it's jammed with text, autoplay ads, and ceaseless admonitions to grow your followers (what, like houseplants?). Statistics cling to every utterance: your droll non sequitur now has a statistical analysis of the number of "Impressions," "Total engagements," "Detail expands," "Profile clicks," and "Favorites" it has received. This is beyond pathological: no one needs that much information for "me right now" or "all roads lead to your boy." On the sidebar you had "trends" (100% uninteresting); now each trend has a line of descriptive text. Text and numbers grow on other text and numbers, like proliferating fractal barnacles. This doesn't even cover the mass echo chamber effects, where any jejune thought can be amplified through the faving and retweeting of the like-minded.