Still Life with Robin: The Twitter Conundrum

by Peggy Robin

Should we all leave Twitter?

All my Twitter friends are talking about this, practically non-stop. Not a one would remain on the platform if it becomes impossible to tell what's a fake account and what's real.

I certainly plan to bail if asked to pay a monthly fee to Elon Musk.

I think it's a good bet that all the major advertisers will flee if they see their ads routinely running alongside racist rants, death threats, porn, or disinformation spread by foreign dictators.

But right now those things are mostly what could happen to Twitter; whether it does happen remains to be seen.

Looking at the Musk takeover so far, I'm not so sure it will. This impulsive, undisciplined "Chief Twit" as he's already dubbed himself, has brought nothing but chaos so far. He might not be able to exercise control and carry out any sort of plan. Does he even know what he wants? He's borrowed so much to take it over -- and he's already muttering about bankruptcy. Maybe he could be forced to sell. Maybe he'd secretly like to sell. Doesn't seem to be something that is making him happy. Like a kid who wanted a dog for Christmas and then got his wish....and then the dog turns around and bites him, he might want to send it back to the pound. One can always hope!

In the meantime, I'm staying put. I'm tweeting daily @StillLifewRobin about my twin addictions, both New York Times word games -- Spelling Bee #hivemind, #nytspellingbee, #nytsb -- and Wordle #Wordle. And I'm following a number of local Twitter users, including Dan Silverman, who writes the always-with-it  PoPville blog and tweets @PoPville, and four fantastic local photographers, DC City Girl @dccitygirl_, Diane Krauthamer @DianeKrauthamer, Tom Hentoff @TomHentoff, and Jen Packard @jpackardphoto.

If you're on Twitter and you haven't yet flown the coop, I highly recommend these Twitter accounts to you.

So as long as they're all sticking around -- and the #hivemind of Spelling Bee is, too -- I'll stick with them. If there is such a thing as karma, that Musk guy will be gone long before we are!

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Still Life with Robin is published on the Cleveland Park Listserv and on All Life is Local on Saturdays -- you and can follow @StillLifewRobin on Twitter, that is, if you'd like a few Spelling Bee hints each day.