How a TikTok-like algorithm and pay-to-play scheme ruined Twitter's complex but functional community, causing the social network to suddenly lose its vitality

NOTE: I'd been working on this piece on and off for a few weeks while trying to move to NYC and settle into my new apartment …

Remains of the Day 2023-07-09 Eugene Wei

Context & Ripple Effects

Related coverage had already identified Twitter’s tension between its follower-based distribution model and TikTok’s recommendation-led reach, as described in the contrast between Twitter’s follower graph and TikTok’s discovery feed.

The reported loss of vitality extends earlier accounts of Twitter’s declining stability under new ownership by tying community damage to changes in both ranking and monetization.

First-order effects

Users and creators face a feed in which established social connections have less influence over what is seen, while paid participation becomes more important to distribution.
Twitter’s existing community dynamics weaken if contributors can no longer rely on the audience relationships and informal norms built around the prior system.

Second-order effects

The change makes Twitter’s product trade-off clearer: TikTok-style discovery can widen reach, but importing it into a follower-led network can disrupt the communities that supplied its ongoing activity.
Pay-to-play distribution can shift creator incentives from participation and conversation toward purchasing visibility, reinforcing the platform-abuse pattern outlined in the enshittification cycle.

Third-order effects

If this pattern persists, social platforms may find that recommendation systems are not interchangeable: a feed designed around discovery can erode value when imposed on a network whose usefulness depends on durable social graphs.
The broader competitive question becomes whether platforms can monetize reach without degrading the user and creator communities that make that reach valuable.

The trend: This is one instance of platforms replacing relationship-based distribution with algorithmic discovery and paid amplification, then confronting the community costs of that shift.

Discussion

@serrurier.bsky.social Ben Serrurier on bluesky
This is pretty long, but I thought passages really captured some of the hard to describe characteristics that made the prime Twitter era great. And also why we'll probably never quite get that back. https://www.eugenewei.com/...
@jpholbrook@mastodon.online Paul Holbrook on mastodon
This is an excellent (though long) essay on Twitter as a social phenomenon - what was special about it at it's peak, and the impact of Musk's interventions. This is about sociology more than technology. Thought-provoking. A lot of the observations apply to Reddit as well, I th…
@danwwang Dan Wang on x
Twitter's unique offering, as articulated by @eugenewei: “Most sane people don't enjoy seeing a bunch of random bursts of text from strangers one after the other, but those that do really really love it.” https://www.eugenewei.com/...
@borrowed_ideas @borrowed_ideas on x
Twitter literally changed the trajectory of my life; this last couple of paragraphs just hit so hard. Twitter created real friendships, but always ran the risk of turning into a zombie land by not building a real business. [image]
@ejames_c Cedric Chin on x
I feel so deeply seen by @eugenewei's latest piece, a beautiful eulogy to Twitter's demise. Also I am extremely pleased by this paragraph. [image]
@joshconstine Josh Constine on x
“Twitter may have been Frankensteinian in its construction, but it was our little monster”. https://www.eugenewei.com/... Brilliant essay by @eugenewei on how Twitter's For You algorithm broke its unique graph
@ikillcuriosity Lawrence on x
Elon has actually solved things as complex as rocket science, but trying to navigate the rules of social status and discourse on Twitter is a completely different beast - a beast that's extremely challenging to tame. [image]
@tammigaw Tammi Gaw on x
This is so true. My personal and professional network can, in large part, be attributed to the relationships I've made on here. I think it's why I still hang on here in the hope that the whiny brat will be forced out before the whole thing gets shuttered. https://twitter.com/...
@kevinakwok Kevin Kwok on x
Requiem for a dream. Speaker for the dead. @eugenewei puts words to the elusive feeling many of us know. Realizing that like cities there won't be a climatic end to the Twitter we grew up in. Just a slow hollowing out until it isn't your neighborhood https://www.eugenewei.com/...
@modestproposal1 @modestproposal1 on x
summoning @eugenewei from retirement to update status as a service re: Threads. It seems to me that (most) arent seeking to gain incremental social capital by moving to Threads, which would arguably doom the undertaking. They just want to play the game they know and love/hate. [i…
@mazedamouth Uncle Ari on x
This is post is, at once, an elegy and an autopsy of our beloved site https://twitter.com/... [image]
@lorenfox7 Loren Fox on x
I've noticed that I'm seeing fewer of my FinTwit friends' tweets... so I was struck by this good (but long) essay on Elon's mistaken changes to the algo that emphasized clickbait over mutuals' tweets. As usual, Wei offers plenty of peripheral insights about community and more. ht…
@eugenewei Eugene Wei on x
I'll miss peak Twitter. It was never perfect, but it was the social media site best suited to me. I met some of my closest friends today through Twitter, and I feel the absence of so many of them who've left. Twitter won't vanish, it will persist, but it won't ever be the same.
@buccocapital BuccoCapital Guy on x
Anyone who says that Twitter hadn't gone to shit is lying to themselves Great eulogy from @eugenewei [image]
@obrien_kat Kat O'Brien on x
Terrific look at what Twitter has been, its evolution, what it has offered to some (absolutely to me, ~1/2 my professional network in Spain I met or got connected to via Twitter), and what it's no longer doing so well. By @eugenewei https://www.eugenewei.com/... [image]
@ross Ross Mayfield on x
“If Twitter's journey epitomizes the sentimental truism that the real treasure was the friends we made along the way, then the story of its demise will begin the moment we could no longer find those friends on that darkened timeline.” https://www.eugenewei.com/...
@sarthakgh Sar Haribhakti on x
Touché This is why fancy Insta people will never replicate the Twitter vibe https://twitter.com/...
@eshear Emmett Shear on x
New @eugenewei on Twitter's evolution/devolution under Musk. Well worth reading. Most important insight IMO is this bit on passive negative sentiment. I've discovered “Not Interested” actually makes For You great, but most will never click it enough. https://www.eugenewei.com/...…
@chetanp Chetan Puttagunta on x
Great read, well written. And sadly agree. https://twitter.com/...
@msg @msg on x
“All my followers are accumulated social capital that seem to have been rendered near worthless by algorithmic deflation.” from @eugenewei's post How to blow up a timeline: https://www.eugenewei.com/...
@eugenewei Eugene Wei on x
My first piece in a while, How to Blow Up a Timeline, is on how Twitter lost its vitality as a social network. (I wrote this before the rate-limiting fiasco and accelerated launch of Threads, so I'll have to leave that discussion for another day) https://www.eugenewei.com/...
@joshsc Josh Constine on threads
“Twitter may have been Frankensteinian in its construction, but it was our little monster”. https://www.eugenewei.com/blog/2023/7/ 6/how-to-blow-up-a-timeline Lovely essay by @eugenewei on how...
@eugenewei Eugene Wei on threads
I haven't had time to write about Threads, but I wanted analyze and mourn the decline of my most-used social media service ever, Twitter. It was often a hot mess, but it felt like our hot mess, and...
@falschgold@mastodon.social Herr Falschgold on mastodon
@Techmeme oh, how I love myself an arcane follower based system which is not algorithm based. (But where is the bloody quote tweet functionality, wasn't it on the roadmap somewhere, @Gargron? I am answering a bot and feel really silly.)
@noahpinion @noahpinion on x
TikTok isn't the world's town square, but the conversations that matter don't happen on Twitter anymore either. There is no more single “town square” — all the important conversations are happening where you can't see them, like they used to before the 2010s. https://twitter.com/…
@jeremylittau Jeremy Littau on x
Taylor Lorenz wrote probably the most essential summation of how this app got so broken so quickly: (full piece https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ...): [image]
@pt Parker on x
My daughter Lucy, 13, who asks that I not share her last name because she's embarrassed her father is on a social network for old people, confirms “Twitter is only for old people.” https://twitter.com/...
@natesilver538 Nate Silver on x
Not the only problem with this article but it doesn't make sense to put free speech in quotes. It's not a direct quote from Elon. And if you want to point out that he's been hypocritical about promoting free speech, you should say that... https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ... [imag…
@aghamilton29 @aghamilton29 on x
I can't stop laughing. Somehow WaPo let Taylor Lorenz publish an article declaring that Tik Tok has replaced Twitter as the global town square because an anonymous high school senior in Pennsylvania told her so. https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ... [image]
@washingtonpost @washingtonpost on x
A decade ago, Twitter rose to prominence by casting itself as a “global town square.” While Meta's new Threads app is making an impressive debut, most social media experts say TikTok reigns as the new global town square and has held the role for a while. https://www.washingtonpos…
r/Twitter r on reddit
How Twitter lost its place as the global town square - Washington Post

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