##You are the reason Twitter is failing.
Twitter is a large social media platform, with millions of users. Like most social apps, it started out caring about its users, because they depended on having a good user experience. Today however, Twitter can play the social media card of being 'someone', using an established reputation to push their interests, which are not benefiting users on the platform. Instead of diving into existing news coverage to discuss why I feel Twitter is going downhill, I'm going to take a different route and state it doesn't matter.
Users can complain all they want about Twitter, but they will still use Twitter. All of your friends may complain about Twitter, but nothing will remove them from the platform. Why? Because every social media giant knows you will not leave their platform, and you are not likely a paying customer for their service. You pay for the service from the ad revenue companies make, and the use of your private data. As long as your friend group exists on Twitter, you will put up with those issues since from the majority perspective, it costs nothing.
This is true of any social media entity operated by businesses. But if you had the choice to join Twitter today as a new user without your friends, you would not have the incentive to learn the app or join there. Social media is by definition, social; it requires people you are interested in.
##So...why is this an issue?
As long as a business incentive exists, there will be no reason for moving to a new app, because nothing stops new proprietary social apps from developing those same issues, becoming an endless chain of app clones from existing social media. This keeps established players on top, preventing competition or innovation. Companies that shove ads in your face, track you, and don't care about your user experience.
The only path forwards is management and operation of social media by users. Think of Discord, where you have one account but can go into any Discord server. The bad servers, you leave. The servers you like that are managed by people who care about their community, are the ones you stay in. Those communities are not managed by Discord; they are managed by the people. Subreddits are also managed by the people, not Reddit.
🐘Mastodon is part of a social media network operated by the people, but is also owned by communities that care (, not a company). It would be like removing the Discord company from their app! No companies equals no ads, and no incentive to keep you using the platform if you aren't happy. To interact with any server, all you need is an account with any server! If you don't like the way a server is operating, you can leave the server and join another without impacting who you can communicate with or who follows you. There are also plenty of other services that co-operate under this open standard.
Big tech does not care about your issues, however you can fix what people are actively complaining about right now on popular social media sites! But it is up to you, the reader, to determine whether you care about the issues we complain about, and make the internet a better place.