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As of the time of this writing, it's now been over 12 hours since Twitter went offline. Wait, I hear you say, how can you say that? Twitter.com is working fine for me!
That's not what I mean. Twitter's third-party app ecosystem (Tweetbot, Twitterific, etc.) has lost all ability to connect to Twitter. Whether it's due to incompetence or malice remains to be seen, but honestly it doesn't matter. To many of us at one time, using Twitter was synonymous with using third-party applications. And if those applications break, Twitter is effectively kaput.
Even very recently, I heard some people in the pundit class express a twinge of admiration that Elon's been able to keep Twitter up and running in spite of apparently firing everyone who works there. See! This is proof that Twitter had way too many employees! He's keeping the lights on with a skeleton crew! Watch and learn, other bloated tech firms!
WellâŚin roughly a week's time we've seen Twitter become unusable for folks in Australian and New Zealand for over 16 hours (in general, not just third-party apps), and then we get to today's blockage. I guess when you fire all the people who know what TF they're doing, and also you're a giant ass-hat, shit goes down.
But enough about Twitter.
In general it seems that the tech sector is witnessing a significant downturn, and do you know what that means? It means that all the VC-fueled startups and new media companies out there who promised fame and glory and free/near-free services to a willing userbase are going to be tightening the screws. Prepare for everything to slowly just get worse and worse. More crappy ads everywhere. Fewer features in free plans. More expensive plans. Less willingness to engage in activities to benefit the internet community in general vs. line their pockets. Canceled shows. Dumb deals with partners which favorably impact the bottom line but at the expense of consumers' convenience.
Of course, one way to look at this is that maybe it's a good thing for companies to focus onâŚy'knowâŚactually making money and turning a profit, rather than continuously sucking on the VC or corporate conglomerate teats. Small consolation for all the users they suddenly have to screw over.
I don't know about you, but I'm getting pretty sick of feeling like a ping-pong ball bouncing back and forth from one increasingly-crappy web service to another. I long for the days when I'm offered a quality product at a fair price from a company or organization which intends to stick around doing just what they do best for, oh I don't know, a few decades at least. I think of, say, Trader Joe's. Not arguing they're a saint of a company, but I've been shopping at Trader Joe's grocery stores for literally as long as I remember. And many of the products they sell seem to exist in an eternally-unchanged form and hardly any more expensive than in years past. That sort of cozy reliability and resistance to unnecessary "disruption" is amazingly appealingâand an ethos I wish there was way the heck more of on today's internet.
But perhaps I'm just Old Man Yells at Cloud, now that I'm officially in my 40s. What do you think? (Don't answer that!)
Links to My Site
- đď¸ I recorded a Fresh Fusion episode all about my "yearly theme" and "three words" for 2023, a tradition I've held on to for many years. Listen to my recap of past years and what my primary goals are for this year!
- đ I finally published my essay about what synchonicity means to me in every day life. I'm still pretty wet behind the ears when it comes to Taoism and related Jungian insights, but as applied to my continuing journey in the realm of spiritual contemplation, it's a topic which has been hugely beneficial.
Photography Corner
âTill next time!
Jared âď¸
