Twitter turned 20 and I feel nothing

## Summary
Twitter's 560-pound sign was blown up in a publicity stunt last year. (Ditchit) Twitter is officially 20 years old. There was a time when Twitter was a place where some internet strangers became my IRL friends, when I was excited to "live-tweet". When my infinitely more well-adjusted friends would send me memes, I would smugly say "I saw that on Twitter days ago." Twitter stopped being that place a long time ago, but I don't have any nostalgia for it. Last year, an online marketplace startup bought the 560-pound Twitter bird that once adorned the company's San Francisco office and blew it up in a Nevada desert surrounded by Tesla CyberTrucks as part of an elaborate publicity stunt.

## Article Content
Twitter's 560-pound sign was blown up in a publicity stunt last year.
(Ditchit)
Twitter is officially 20 years old. In another reality, that might make me kind of nostalgic. I've been lurking and scrolling and tweeting for 16 years; most of my adult life. There was a time when Twitter was a place where some internet strangers became my IRL friends, when I was excited to "live-tweet". When my infinitely more well-adjusted friends would send me memes, I would smugly say "I saw that on Twitter days ago."
Twitter stopped being that place a long time ago, but I don't have any nostalgia for it. I don't really feel anything at all, actually.
Because I can already hear the comments: Yes, I'm still on X. I don't spend as much time there as I did a decade ago, but it's still quite a lot of time, an
unhealthy
amount, if I'm being honest. My job is to report on social media companies, so I keep (doom)scrolling. That's what I tell myself anyway.
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A few of my favorite posters are still around. Dril's
still got it
. The memes are still, occasionally, good, even though X's recommendation algorithm seems to prefer pointing me toward endless AI slop, boring hot takes from thirsty mid-tier tech execs and blatant engagement bait. X's algorithm —
what little we can learn about it
, anyway — now relies on Grok's predictions about what you'll like.The same Holocaust-loving Grok that has spewed racism and referred to itself as
MechaHitler
and
declared Elon Musk
"the single greatest person in modern history." The same Grok that allegedly generated thousands of images of
child abuse material
. Hey @grok is that true?
X is not Twitter but it's also
not not-Twitter
. Last year, an online marketplace startup bought the 560-pound Twitter bird that once adorned the company's San Francisco office and
blew it up in a Nevada desert
surrounded by Tesla CyberTrucks as part of an elaborate publicity stunt. Dumb? Yes. But also a somehow fitting
adieu
for "Larry."
It's been 20 years since Jack Dorsey sent the first-ever tweet, which was never even a good tweet anyway. It's been five years, by the way, since he turned that tweet
into an NFT
(remember NFTs??) and auctioned it for nearly
$3 million
. It's now
functionally worthless
. Another chapter in Dorsey's
confusing, complicated legacy
.
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## Expert Analysis

### Merits
N/A

### Areas for Consideration
N/A

### Implications
- In another reality, that might make me kind of nostalgic.

### Expert Commentary
This article covers twitter, tweet, grok topics. Readability: Flesch-Kincaid grade 0.0. Word count: 404.