Jan. 11, 2025 - Liberty Hangout - Kaitlin Bennett
09:45
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| Time | Text |
|---|---|
| I hate to say it guys, but Elon Musk kind of ruined Twitter and made it a worse platform than it used to be. | |
| Now, before you come at me, let me just say I initially loved what Elon was doing with Twitter. | |
| He had the right vision when he purchased it in 2022, turning it into a true free speech platform, cutting down on censorship, and making it the digital town square. | |
| But let's be honest, the execution has resulted in exactly the opposite. | |
| Let me start by taking you back to the glory days of Twitter, before the communists in Silicon Valley started banning people for having the wrong opinions in 2019 or 2020. | |
| Because to be clear, I am not saying that Twitter was better in those days than now. | |
| I'm talking about going all the way back to 2016 when Donald Trump popularized Twitter and the likes of Alex Jones and Milo Yiannopoulos were able to push boundaries without penalization. | |
| We're coming for you, globalist. | |
| Twitter back then was a platform where you could say whatever you wanted to whoever you wanted. | |
| And the fact that you could interact with celebrities like Trump and keep up with their thoughts in real time was what attracted people to the platform. | |
| And the best thing about it was that there was absolutely no algorithm trying to decide what you should see or who you should talk to. | |
| If you followed someone, you saw their tweets. | |
| Simple as that. | |
| Fast forward to today and Twitter, or should I say X, is almost unrecognizable. | |
| Let's start by talking about the For You tab. | |
| Who thought it was a good idea to make Twitter feel like TikTok? | |
| Instead of seeing tweets from people I actually follow, I'm bombarded with random accounts, viral clickbait, and content I never asked for. | |
| The algorithm is no longer about connecting people or fostering meaningful conversations. | |
| It's about keeping you glued to the platform for as long as possible. | |
| And the worst part, it rewards accounts that are addicted to using X. If you're not posting constantly, interacting non-stop, and playing the algorithm game, your voice never gets heard. | |
| The user experience has become extremely chaotic and is now like TikTok and Instagram, but in text form, instead of a place to find quick updates on what's going on in the world and see breaking news in real time. | |
| Take someone like me, for example. | |
| I spend most of my time raising my family and living out the conservative values I talk about online. | |
| I don't have hours to spend on social media every day. | |
| And because of that, I can't even reach my own followers anymore, let alone break through the algorithm to reach new people. | |
| It's disappointing and it's the opposite of what a healthy society should strive for. | |
| Social media addiction is already a massive problem. | |
| And X, unfortunately, is only making it worse. | |
| And don't even get me started on monetization. | |
| On the surface, it sounds like a great idea, right? | |
| Get paid for your content. | |
| But in practice, it's been a disaster. | |
| People are now posting the most ridiculous clickbait nonsense just to farm engagement and earn a paycheck. | |
| AI-generated content is everywhere and authenticity is nowhere to be found. | |
| And let's be real, unless you're one of the accounts Elon himself shares in boosts, you're barely going to earn back the $8 a month you pay to be verified. | |
| Please, I beg you. | |
| I beg you. | |
| Please. | |
| The monetization model is misleading and it's turning the platform into a digital gold rush where quality content is replaced by whatever gets the most clicks. | |
| And here's the kicker. | |
| Elon wanted Twitter to be a free speech platform. | |
| But how can it be a true free speech platform when you have to pay for visibility? | |
| If you don't have a blue check mark, your tweets are essentially buried. | |
| Just last week, Elon even encouraged verified users to turn off replies from non-paying accounts and cut them off from the conversation. | |
| He shared a post that said, I set my post to verified accounts only and it's been tremendously helpful in cutting down spam and payouts from X are up by 20%. | |
| And he replied with, worth doing. | |
| That same day, Elon Musk announced He's changing the algorithm to boost positive tweets and hide what they deem negative. | |
| Does that sound familiar? | |
| It's a return of censorship, just with a different label. | |
| He wrote a tweet just a few days ago which said, algorithm tweet coming soon to promote more informational slash entertaining content. | |
| Our goal is to maximize unregretted user seconds. | |
| Too much negativity is being pushed that technically grows user time, but not unregretted user time. | |
| The funny thing is that in principle, I agree with him. | |
| Twitter has long been a place with too much negativity, and its ability to whip up an outrage mob has been disastrous. | |
| But I think he has the wrong solution. | |
| I don't think that software engineers should be ones to decide what content other people need to see. | |
| And the terms positive and negative content are very ambiguous labels that can be used to justify any sort of censorship. | |
| We've seen it before. | |
| This type of control over our feeds was exactly what Elon and others detested from previous Twitter ownership. | |
| But let's not make this all doom and gloom. | |
| Elon has done some things right. | |
| Community notes has been a big step up from the fact checks Jack Dorsey used to slap on every right-wing tweet. | |
| And Grok has been an incredibly useful tool that rivals ChatGPT. | |
| Elon Musk also listens to user feedback, which is more than we could say for the old Twitter management. | |
| He's trying to offer an alternative to the other social media giants. | |
| And I believe his heart is in the right place. | |
| But here's the thing. | |
| Twitter didn't need to be completely reinvented. | |
| It just needed free speech. | |
| That's it. | |
| So here's my unsolicited advice for Elon. | |
| First, default the platform to open up the following tab instead of the for you page. | |
| Let users decide what they want to see instead of making that decision for us. | |
| Bring back the simplicity that made Twitter great in the first place. | |
| In fact, when I go to the following tab, I see a whole bunch of tweets with almost no engagements, even from accounts with big followings, which proves you need to make it onto the for you page for anyone to even see your tweets. | |
| It's not reaching your followers. | |
| Second, please rethink monetization. | |
| I don't think I'm alone in believing that not every tweet needs to be monetized. | |
| Perhaps only certain kinds of content like subscriptions, video, and audio should be monetized to cut down on the engagement farming and make it a better user experience for everyone. | |
| That way, creators can still earn money without bombarding everybody with clickbait. | |
| In my opinion, changes like these will help X to become the digital town square Elon Musk promised to create and encourage users to be more authentic. | |
| And please, please, let's shy away from making every single app like TikTok. | |
| A good app should curate all the content users hope to see to satisfy that social media itch while creating a good cutoff point to not keep them endlessly scrolling and addicted. | |
| Overhauling the algorithm to discourage users from posting all day long would radically help our country to get off their phones and go do something else. | |
| Because let's be honest, a society that's glued to their phones 24-7 is a highly dysfunctional one. | |
| At the end of the day, I want X to succeed. | |
| I want it to be the platform Elon envisioned. | |
| A place for free speech, open dialogue, and meaningful connections. | |
| But right now, it feels like we're headed in the wrong direction. | |
| Let's skip back to basics, Elon. | |
| Twitter didn't need a complete overhaul. | |
| It just needed a little more freedom of speech. | |
| When Elon first bought Twitter and the political censorship of conservatives was lifted, it really felt like a return to the Twitter of old. | |
| But the changes of late have been so sporadic that I'm sure I'm not alone in feeling this way. | |
| I have high hopes for X and I'm so happy that it's not in the hands of Democrats any longer. | |
| But at the same time, I'm concerned for its future and what impact that might have on our country for years to come. | |
| If anyone is hiring the best minds who can figure this stuff out and think of much better ideas than I can, I know it's Elon Musk. | |
| So I have faith that if he were to get wind of this video, that he might take these concerns seriously and see if his team is capable of developing something more groundbreaking. | |
| But since this stay-at-home mom has trouble making it into any sort of algorithm these days, I need you to support my work directly by leaving a super thanks below or go to patreon.com slash Caitlin Bennett where you can gain access to my private Facebook group where you can chat with me one-on-one and help me come up with my next video idea. | |
| Or maybe we can even move my private group over to X one day if Facebook fails to deliver on their promises for free speech. | |
| Anyway, let me know what you guys think. | |
| Do you think the changes Elon has made to X has been positive? | |
| Or is it not panning out to be what you expected? | |
| Let me know in the comments and while you're at it, don't forget to like, share, and subscribe. | |
| Thank you guys so much for watching. |
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