Once I felt love, connection, excitement … but it’s time to break up with my X

Dear X,

It’s time we broke up. I’m leaving you; I’m going to close my account. And it makes me sad, when I think of all the good times we have had.

Remember back when we first started, 14 years ago? I was 37 years old, I didn’t have children yet, my business was in its infancy and life was quite different.

It was once a central part of Perth public life. But now, Nic Hayes is breaking up with his X.

I would post five to 10 times a day at the height of engagement. I would share and engage with agenda-setting topics, issues, and events. But I mostly loved the connections I made with people as enthusiastic as I was. In the early days we would have ‘Tweet Ups’ where we’d meet at a cafe in person – we were like a flash mob of 30-50 people.

At a little cafe in Subiaco a flood of communication and branding professionals, web designers, advertising agency people, journalists and business owners would come together for coffee. We were early digital nomads exploring an exciting new frontier. That same landscape now looks like a desolate wasteland straight out of Mad Max.

Can you imagine feeling safe enough these days to do that with a group of 30 strangers from X? I’m pretty sure the answer to that question would be a resounding no.

Back then, friendships and business transactions were made, but more importantly we embraced the ‘social’ aspect of social media. Twitter, you were the place I would announce milestones in my personal life and in my business alike.

As a media professional, you have for the last decade been the perfect platform for me, and losing the digital footprint we’ve created together isn’t easy. You’ve been a place to engage different opinions, develop ideas, to amplify messages, to have robust conversations with vigour, passion and humour.

And while I could take the Seinfeld way out and say, “it’s not you, it’s me”, the truth is: you’re not the platform you were.

You changed when Elon Musk took over. The keyboard warriors found strength in their anonymity and delivered waves of misinformation, hate and fear.

The more people I blocked, unfollowed, or just tried to stay away from it seems you found unusual ways to help their content find me.

The commercialisation has nothing to do with our parting ways. I completely understand and do not blame Elon for making money from you. But that didn’t need to be at the expense of your credibility, trust and brand.

I’m not looking for an echo chamber or a silo of my own views and opinions to bounce off, but I am most certainly not looking for the putrid hate and misinformation your platform has become about.

The ugliness of politics and wars, the persecution of minorities, the over inflated opinions of the few, the non-stop barrage of name-calling, vilification, whining, whingeing, and outright lies: there’s a reason people are leaving you in droves. It’s just too hard to stay reasonable, thoughtful or to contribute anything truly worthwhile now.

The Medianet 2024 Media Landscape Report backs my thoughts. It found that many media and journalists have also turned their backs on X as a source of stories, ideas, content and experts. It’s sad to think that what was once an amazing resource for journalists, and was designed for them, has now become redundant.

To quote the report directly: “There was a significant drop in professional Twitter/X usage in 2023, with 58 per cent of respondents saying they used the platform, down from 69 per cent in 2022. Ten per cent identified having either recently deleted their account or stopped using it in 2023.”

With a drop of 11 per cent in one year and that number looking likely to increase in 2025, your platform is now cooked for journalism and communicators.

It’s such a shame considering the ever-changing media landscape in Australia. In Perth particularly, where newsrooms are often understaffed, you provided a brilliantly simple resource to connect with the masses and find those all-important case studies.

While we’re at it, I shall not be jumping over to Threads either. That’s just a token platform that Meta will have you believe is a happier and more inclusive one. There’s no evidence of that … and I will jump off it once I remember what my password is. And that reminds me, Facebook, we also need to talk.

But for now, while it breaks my heart to end this, it’s time. I wish you well, our times were swell — but now it’s time to say farewell.

XXX.

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