Why I'm staying put on Twitter

Will the last person to leave Twitter please turn off the light? As a regular Twitter user, I’ve seen over the past few weeks how Elon Musk’s takeover of the company has resulted in scores of users tweeting to say they are leaving the social media platform, with others opening Mastodon accounts to hedge their bets. Book Twitter is awash with talk of who is going and pleas to maintain connections. Right now, it seems, for many users the place to be is elsewhere.

Media stories about Twitter are currently all doom and gloom. When Musk became the official owner of the company at the end of October, he fired key executives—and then went on to sack half of the workforce. Twitter users went into uproar when Musk announced his strategy to charge $7.99 a month for the blue tick verified user status—anyone can buy it, which rather negates the point that a blue tick is supposed to guarantee that the account holder is the real deal. To add more fuel to the fire, he reinstated Donald Trump’s account after the former president was banned in January 2021 following the US Capitol attack, under Twitter’s Glorification of Violence policy. 

Worries abounded about Twitter’s online safety, policing of the site and the possible proliferation of fake news from users posing as official companies or organisations. For example, an account posing as the pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly, with a blue tick, announced free insulin for all, causing the real company to apologise and point out their correct Twitter address.

Then came more stability concerns. Musk, renowned for working around the clock, offered severance pay for staff who didn’t want to put in "long hours at high intensity". The Guardian reported that 75% chose to go, fuelling rumours that Twitter could collapse due to technical failures and bugs, with not enough engineers employed to fix things behind the scenes. Or could Twitter suddenly go offline due to bankruptcy? Some advertisers, the main source of the social media platform’s income, have gone elsewhere due to brand safety concerns. If Twitter’s ship is sinking, they wanted to be first on the lifeboats.

Social media is not known for its kindness, but #BookTwitter is an oasis in the middle of the troll desert, a welcoming place (with a few high-profile exceptions) for those who love reading, who write, or who work in publishing 

All these things have led to Twitter panic and the #goodbye hashtag trending. Me though, I’m staying put, hoping there won’t be a bitter end. When I signed a contract in 2019 to publish my first novel, my publisher’s advice was to get on social media. Facebook is mainly used by an older demographic. Instagram is useful if you’re the visual type, but I’m still at the point-and-shoot stage with a camera. Twitter, being all about words, became my natural home, in particular the community known as #BookTwitter. It was a revelation. Social media is not known for its kindness, but #BookTwitter is an oasis in the middle of the troll desert, a welcoming place (with a few high-profile exceptions) for those who love reading, who write, or who work in publishing. Readers, bloggers, PRs, marketeers, authors—we all are united in our passion for books and reading. 

It took time and effort to build my following and get to know other like-minded users. Publishing social-media marketing experts such as Anna Caig teach the importance of building a community, interacting, starting conversations and joining in with others, as opposed to just posting "buy my new book!" I made contacts, book friends, found out about work opportunities and kept tabs on agents I was interested in submitting to. Unlike other social media platforms, to me Twitter isn’t a chore, it’s a boon, so much so that I have to limit the time I spend on it to actually get some writing done. 

I don’t want to leave all these connections and the book community behind. I hadn’t heard of Mastodon until Twitter friends posted that they were going there. To me, although it has many enthusiastic users, it’s complicated to work out; you sign up to a server run by volunteers, which relies on them continuing to maintain it; you can only search the server you are on for people, rather than the whole network; and there are concerns about safety and monitoring content. I didn’t sign up. 

Who knows what Musk may do in the future? Could he introduce charges for an ordinary account or something else completely unexpected? Hopefully he will know not to further anger his 450 million active monthly users. Twitter may not have as many users as Facebook, Instagram or TikTok, but it still is a huge social media platform which, according to BusinessofApps.com, earned $5bn in 2021. To let that go to ruin would surely be pure folly.

Out of interest, I have signed up for a notification of the launch of Bluesky Social, a non-profit initiative being developed by Twitter’s founders. But I have no plans to close my Twitter account. It would feel like moving from a beloved family home to a sparsely furnished new build. People make a social media platform and those who make up #BookTwitter are special. I’m staying put until it’s only me, the blue bird and a solitary lightbulb.