Even Non-Tech Folks Are Exploring If It’s Time To Abandon Twitter

Over the last few weeks, I've been spending much more time using Mastodon, and shifting much of what I used to use Twitter for to that other platform. It's not an exact replacement, nor is it meant to be, but it's been growing incredibly rapidly as Twitter seemingly crumbles under Elon Musk. Lots of people keep insisting to me that Mastodon can't succeed - and it's entirely possible that it won't. I have no crystal ball. And some people insist that it will only attract tech" folks who are able to go through the (marginally) more complicated steps to signing up for Mastodon. Indeed, some people (mostly on Twitter, naturally) seem positively angry at me for suggesting that it's even possible that Mastodon could reach critical mass.

For me, at least, it has reached critical mass. Many of the people I regularly talk to on Twitter have shifted over, and I found the learning curve for Mastodon to be incredibly short and not very steep at all.

But, the question still remains if non-tech people will really move over. Some have, including some celebrities who had large Twitter followings like Neil Gaiman, Stephen Fry, and George Takei.

And while most of what I see on Twitter these days are people talking about what a shit job Elon Musk seems to be doing running (and I use that term loosely) the place, the one area I haven't seen that discussion reach (for the most part) is sports Twitter, where people are happily talking about sports.

So I was a bit surprised to see at least some in that world are also considering if it's time to abandon Musk's sinking ship. The NY Post sports page, of all places, recently had an article saying that sports media should rethink its relationship with Elon Musk's Twitter.

While a large part of the argument is that sports journalists revealing breaking news on Twitter takes traffic away from the news media organizations who actually pay their salaries, that... seems misguided. The reason sports media break stories on Twitter is because it acts as a time stamping service to show who broke the news first, in an industry where who got it first kinda matters (even if for dumb reasons). And those reporters still drive traffic back to their employers with their full stories.

But I find it quite noteworthy that even if we're not seeing sportswriters moving to Mastodon or other alternative social media platforms yet, just the fact that they're already kicking off a discussion about how maybe it's time to decrease their reliance on Twitter, really makes it clear how widely the concern is about the direction Elon has taken the site.