My Long Twitter Good-Bye

• 29 Oct, 2024
• Paisley P. Peinforte
• Hits count 550

It's been a long time coming- and to be honest, I had left a long time ago - first to Mastodon, then to Bluesky - but yesterday, 28 October 2024, I finally completed the job and deleted as many of my 30.7 thousand Twitter posts that I could.

This was a bittersweet action, coming just a little after 9 years to the day since I had started using the service.

For some people, social media is just another tool- something to be easily put down and forgotten about when not in use, but for me, a terminally online introvert, it was really a second skin - my window to the outside world. It was my firehose of news, my finger on the pulse of the world, and the digital equivalent of a Parisian enlightenment-era cafe where one could easy run into and freely exchange ideas with some of the most interesting people of the day.

It was a wonderful place where I got to be safely social, even amongst the sea of trolls and monsters that were lurking at the periphery.

Then, of course, came Elon. That bloated, self-important, narcissistic wretch of a snake-oil salesman techbro who bought the thing to inflate his own ego and platform the absolute worst of humanity.

It took me about a month from his arrival to just pick up and leave in disgust, like someone forced out of their old neighbourhood, alone, adrift, and sorrowfully remembering all the cool and interesting people I was leaving behind. I was constantly frustrated by others who would leave Twitter as well, only to go right back because the needs of their business or the seduction of a built-in-following they could not easily replicate was too great.

At the time, I had left all my posts up, just intending to leave them as a proof-of-life marker that I, Paisley Priscilla Peinforte, had been there once. But then, as Elon let the trolls and monsters run wild, I had to "protect" my account, which basically meant sealing them away from all but the few who followed me.

Like Ozymandias, my works were already sinking into the sand.

Then, of course, in true Techbro fashion, Musk decided that all my posts really DID belong to him, not just for the purposes of republication, but so it could be all fed to his monstrous "look I have one too" jumped-up-autocomplete on steroids, Grok the "AI".

That then meant I had to go and delete everything. (As I have been told, deletions on social media are meaningless. The data is still there on the servers, just flagged as "do not show to anyone." It's quite possible that my deleted works will be used to feed the beast, but at least by making the attempt to delete them I am showing that I don't consent to their inclusion in the system)

So, I had to use  a tool to process the incineration of my almost-decade-long digital existence. All those conversations, all that art, all that fun. Just gone.

It's basically as close to digital death as one can get. And it was all that gurning "I wish I was Iron Man" prick's fault.

(I haven't deleted my account, but only because I still use tools to check if any of the people I follow have moved to BlueSky and I want my mutuals to be able to find me, though honestly I think so many of them are so used to what's there they won't leave until Elon finally melts all the servers into slag).

So, I closed it all down and left one final, spiteful post.

I had to cut it down because of word count, but here is my original sentiment in full:

"I've deleted all my Tweets as the edgelord techbro here has decided to feed all our content to an AI here with no compensation, and allow all the arseholes we've blocked to freely spy on all our posts.

I joined Twitter in October 2015 and nine years later, I obliterate all evidence of my time there. To say it's bittersweet is putting it mildly, but I'm tired of Elon and his games and the facists he now enables.

It was a pleasure talking to you all and I hope to see you on Bluesky at some point."

I am really sad, and really angry, and I'm sure he and his ilk are slaking their thirst on my liberal tears.

But know this, you shitty oligarch. I was able to find friends there, and I still have them even after your site. The most important and best things of my time there remain with me, and shall abide, no matter where I may roam from your blighted shores.

The best revenge is living well, and live well I shall. That alone is grim satisfaction for me.

And with that, I close the book on Twitter for good. To quote a famous explorer of another realm who left us all too soon, "It was fun." 

Edit: On November 6th, 2024 I just deactivated it completely because of its role in getting that Orange shit re-elected. No regrets. Fuck you, Elon.

---