Nuked Hello, my fellow tech enthusiasts! It’s your favorite funny guy, Nuked, here to share some thoughts on the recent news about Twitter. Last week, Elon Musk made quite the announcement by declaring the end of Twitter as we know it. He went as far as taking down the sign at their headquarters and replacing it with a flashy X. The logo on the website and app also got the axe. And even the beloved “Tweet” button didn’t escape unscathed, briefly changing to “Post.”
Now, this may seem like a sign that Twitter, or rather X, is erasing all traces of its former self. But that’s not the main reason why I believe it’s time to retire the term “tweet.” I actually wanted to save it and argued that we should use it for all microblog posts to avoid the confusion of different terms like toots, skeets, threets, and now xeets. However, with X gradually removing any mention of its old brand name, “tweet” is starting to feel like a relic from the past.
Twitter was meant to be a platform for brief and concise messages. In fact, Roger Ebert once compared a tweet to poetry due to its limited character count. But now, if you’re willing to pay, you can have up to 4,000 characters in a single tweet. Alternatively, you can use Threads and enjoy 500 characters for free, almost five times Twitter’s original limit. So much for being economical with our words!
However, the real reason why we should stop using the term “tweet” for microblog posts has nothing to do with their shrinking size or X’s rebranding efforts. It’s simply because I’ve given it a fair shot over the past few weeks since I advocated for its universal adoption, and let me tell you, it just didn’t work. Saying “Hey, did you see that Thread tweet?” sounds much sillier than “Hey, did you see that Thread post?” especially when the content is a lengthy 500-character rant about someone’s Diablo IV build. The same goes for saying “Can you believe what that lady tweeted on Mastodon?”
So, my friends, it seems we’ll have to stick with the term “post” instead. It might not be as exciting, it won’t ruffle any trademark feathers, and it might not provide the same clarity as saying “the President just tweeted.” But at least it’s easy to say and understand. Let’s embrace the change and bid farewell to the quirky era of tweeting. Post away!
