Staying on the social networking site is an option, but so is moving on to the next platform. In terms of social media, a lot of online creators are focused on other platforms. As soon as the primary user base became old enough to talk about 401(k)s and mortgage rates, it stopped being cool. Some of us hung in there to discuss Scandal, Game of Throne, and politics. For a lot of us that is our full time job. It came with a cost, whether it was being dogpiled by troll or being drained by the drama of the day. Some people lost their jobs or relationships because of things they said on the internet. Some people were harassed completely on social media.
Being a semi-public figure is always at risk of being destructive. Being online is gambling with your future because you don't know who or what you'll meet.
My online history has shaped my view of the social networking site. LiveJournal was bought by a Russian company and it was officially declared dead. It was dying in America before it got a chance to shine. We opened accounts in several places because we didn't know that the lead place to transition to would beTwitter. Over the last two years, people have been creating accounts on a number of sites. Platforms are not about the owners. The leadership of the platform was unpopular before Musk offered to buy it. The way in which the company seemed determined to create features that made advertising easier but connecting harder was a problem for users who had relied on the service for many things. I wonder if what we are seeing is the next turn of the larger wheel of internet culture. Can any platform be the only one that matters as technology changes, or will we always move on to new pastures when we need to?
It is frightening to think about the end of the line for this form of microblogging. More than half of the people who use it the most don't use it anymore. It's always the case when a platform collapses. It's possible that going viral on another platform won't happen again like it did in 2011. The writing was on the wall for every platform that seemed too large to fail when influencing became a career goal. Everyone else will go where the celebrities and cultural experts go. This is perhaps my most chronically online hot take, but Musk seems to have bought a millstone, not a culture.
As we look at the possibility of a future without the internet, will anything really change for the average person who doesn't use the internet? It is possible for social media users to find each other again on different websites. In the '90s, I met my friends in AOL chatrooms. They found me on other platforms because of my unique name. It will be easier for their audience to follow them if they make their big break on TikTok or YouTube. Microcelebrity is not all content creators' cup of tea. A lot of people will get what they need from social media and then stop using it.
Social media can be used to get what you want, but it isn't a good place to live. We know what it costs but we don't know what it will cost. We might not be able to keep paying that price. Even though Musk might make money on the deal, he seems to think that it's over. No one likes zombies.
Mikki Kendall is a writer, an occasional feminist, and the author of Hood Feminism.
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