#i hate twitter and it's addictive algorithm

[megkuna]

i really do still prefer tumblr as a social media it just sucks there's no gofushi shippers here. meh

[ahopelessprincessreincarnation]

Is it just me, or has other people's Twitter(I am not calling it "X" or whatever the fuck Elongated Msukrat wants it to be named or something no matter what. Lmfaoooo he can suck my fat throbbing and imaginary girl dick)been really...garbage at recommending them tweets and stuff related to what they're actually interested in lately?I know social media algorithms are probably always exploitative and shit because capitalism but maybe I'm just now noticing??I don't know they feel more put of place and negative than usual(To be fair, Twitter is sorta a form of "digital self-harm" or at the very least self-triggering for me but who cares?:P)Its not like I even want to be on the annoying blue bird app anyways but for some reason constantly arguing with people in a morally-righteous way and being upset and scared all the time when I'm on there...it feels really good at the same time??I don't even know anymore sorry if my explanation doesn't make sense, are there any psychological studies on why this happens?(That sounds dumb, sorry for being an idiot but I'm genuinely curious).

[elegantcherryblossomsheep]

oh boy i could rant for hours about the people defending social media for under-16s. like,, "its how some kids make friends" THEN SET UP SYSTEMS FOR THEM TO MAKE FRIENDS IN OTHER WAYS?! or allow them to make friends that are not integrated among adults and harmful content? "It's hard to police?" literally even youtube has an age verification that involves sending a photograph of ID. Annoying yes but a bit more secure. "I was on social media at 8" ok thats actually concerning for you and was also illegal (age limit is 13 usually). besides the climate of social media is shifting as people get hella comfortable online. "it should be the parents choice" but the parent CANNOT be unbiased. if their kid begs they will want to say its ok. if they don't understand the dangers of modern social media they will say yes. "its a good place for activism" Yes true. but that also makes it a good place for radicalism. mysoginy. racism. discrimination and hate. its also not a 14 year olds job to fix the world! they can read the news and talk to their friends and find information in other ways. "the platforms will never do it" they MIGHT with enough pushback. without a choice. "the kids wont like it" well, yeah. but its not cutting them off from friends - it wouldn't ban messaging or communication?? you could still talk to people you already knew and had contact details for?? they dont lose the connection so much as the carefully selected highlight reels.

social media is designed to be addictive. profit off attention. be distracting. encouragee maximum engagement with limited regard for safety. its true that perhaps without social media i would have taken longer to realise i was gay. at the same time though, i may not have developed issues with self destructive behaviours that impact me to this day. i wish there had been a ban in my adoolescence and wish for an easier time for future generations.

[drcyan]

Tumblr’s Core Product Strategy

Here at Tumblr, we’ve been working hard on reorganizing how we work in a bid to gain more users. A larger user base means a more sustainable company, and means we get to stick around and do this thing with you all a bit longer. What follows is the strategy we're using to accomplish the goal of user growth. The @labs group has published a bit already, but this is bigger. We’re publishing it publicly for the first time, in an effort to work more transparently with all of you in the Tumblr community. This strategy provides guidance amid limited resources, allowing our teams to focus on specific key areas to ensure Tumblr’s future.

The Diagnosis

In order for Tumblr to grow, we need to fix the core experience that makes Tumblr a useful place for users. The underlying problem is that Tumblr is not easy to use. Historically, we have expected users to curate their feeds and lean into curating their experience. But this expectation introduces friction to the user experience and only serves a small portion of our audience. 

Tumblr’s competitive advantage lies in its unique content and vibrant communities. As the forerunner of internet culture, Tumblr encompasses a wide range of interests, such as entertainment, art, gaming, fandom, fashion, and music. People come to Tumblr to immerse themselves in this culture, making it essential for us to ensure a seamless connection between people and content. 

To guarantee Tumblr’s continued success, we’ve got to prioritize fostering that seamless connection between people and content. This involves attracting and retaining new users and creators, nurturing their growth, and encouraging frequent engagement with the platform.

Our Guiding Principles

To enhance Tumblr’s usability, we must address these core guiding principles.

Expand the ways new users can discover and sign up for Tumblr.

Provide high-quality content with every app launch.

Facilitate easier user participation in conversations.

Retain and grow our creator base.

Create patterns that encourage users to keep returning to Tumblr.

Improve the platform’s performance, stability, and quality.

Below is a deep dive into each of these principles.

Principle 1: Expand the ways new users can discover and sign up for Tumblr.

Tumblr has a “top of the funnel” issue in converting non-users into engaged logged-in users. We also have not invested in industry standard SEO practices to ensure a robust top of the funnel. The referral traffic that we do get from external sources is dispersed across different pages with inconsistent user experiences, which results in a missed opportunity to convert these users into regular Tumblr users. For example, users from search engines often land on pages within the blog network and blog view—where there isn’t much of a reason to sign up. 

We need to experiment with logged-out tumblr.com to ensure we are capturing the highest potential conversion rate for visitors into sign-ups and log-ins. We might want to explore showing the potential future user the full breadth of content that Tumblr has to offer on our logged-out pages. We want people to be able to easily understand the potential behind Tumblr without having to navigate multiple tabs and pages to figure it out. Our current logged-out explore page does very little to help users understand “what is Tumblr.” which is a missed opportunity to get people excited about joining the site.

Actions & Next Steps

Improving Tumblr’s search engine optimization (SEO) practices to be in line with industry standards.

Experiment with logged out tumblr.com to achieve the highest conversion rate for sign-ups and log-ins, explore ways for visitors to “get” Tumblr and entice them to sign up.

Principle 2: Provide high-quality content with every app launch.

We need to ensure the highest quality user experience by presenting fresh and relevant content tailored to the user’s diverse interests during each session. If the user has a bad content experience, the fault lies with the product.

The default position should always be that the user does not know how to navigate the application. Additionally, we need to ensure that when people search for content related to their interests, it is easily accessible without any confusing limitations or unexpected roadblocks in their journey.

Being a 15-year-old brand is tough because the brand carries the baggage of a person’s preconceived impressions of Tumblr. On average, a user only sees 25 posts per session, so the first 25 posts have to convey the value of Tumblr: it is a vibrant community with lots of untapped potential. We never want to leave the user believing that Tumblr is a place that is stale and not relevant. 

Actions & Next Steps

Deliver great content each time the app is opened.

Make it easier for users to understand where the vibrant communities on Tumblr are. 

Improve our algorithmic ranking capabilities across all feeds. 

Principle 3: Facilitate easier user participation in conversations.

Part of Tumblr’s charm lies in its capacity to showcase the evolution of conversations and the clever remarks found within reblog chains and replies. Engaging in these discussions should be enjoyable and effortless.

Unfortunately, the current way that conversations work on Tumblr across replies and reblogs is confusing for new users. The limitations around engaging with individual reblogs, replies only applying to the original post, and the inability to easily follow threaded conversations make it difficult for users to join the conversation.

Actions & Next Steps

Address the confusion within replies and reblogs.

Improve the conversational posting features around replies and reblogs. 

Allow engagements on individual replies and reblogs.

Make it easier for users to follow the various conversation paths within a reblog thread. 

Remove clutter in the conversation by collapsing reblog threads. 

Explore the feasibility of removing duplicate reblogs within a user’s Following feed. 

Principle 4: Retain and grow our creator base.

Creators are essential to the Tumblr community. However, we haven’t always had a consistent and coordinated effort around retaining, nurturing, and growing our creator base.  

Being a new creator on Tumblr can be intimidating, with a high likelihood of leaving or disappointment upon sharing creations without receiving engagement or feedback. We need to ensure that we have the expected creator tools and foster the rewarding feedback loops that keep creators around and enable them to thrive.

The lack of feedback stems from the outdated decision to only show content from followed blogs on the main dashboard feed (“Following”), perpetuating a cycle where popular blogs continue to gain more visibility at the expense of helping new creators. To address this, we need to prioritize supporting and nurturing the growth of new creators on the platform.

It is also imperative that creators, like everyone on Tumblr, feel safe and in control of their experience. Whether it be an ask from the community or engagement on a post, being successful on Tumblr should never feel like a punishing experience.

Actions & Next Steps

Get creators’ new content in front of people who are interested in it. 

Improve the feedback loop for creators, incentivizing them to continue posting.

Build mechanisms to protect creators from being spammed by notifications when they go viral.

Expand ways to co-create content, such as by adding the capability to embed Tumblr links in posts.

Principle 5: Create patterns that encourage users to keep returning to Tumblr.

Push notifications and emails are essential tools to increase user engagement, improve user retention, and facilitate content discovery. Our strategy of reaching out to you, the user, should be well-coordinated across product, commercial, and marketing teams.

Our messaging strategy needs to be personalized and adapt to a user’s shifting interests. Our messages should keep users in the know on the latest activity in their community, as well as keeping Tumblr top of mind as the place to go for witty takes and remixes of the latest shows and real-life events.  

Most importantly, our messages should be thoughtful and should never come across as spammy.  

Actions & Next Steps

Conduct an audit of our messaging strategy.

Address the issue of notifications getting too noisy; throttle, collapse or mute notifications where necessary.  

Identify opportunities for personalization within our email messages. 

Test what the right daily push notification limit is. 

Send emails when a user has push notifications switched off.

Principle 6: Performance, stability and quality.

The stability and performance of our mobile apps have declined. There is a large backlog of production issues, with more bugs created than resolved over the last 300 days. If this continues, roughly one new unresolved production issue will be created every two days. Apps and backend systems that work well and don't crash are the foundation of a great Tumblr experience. Improving performance, stability, and quality will help us achieve sustainable operations for Tumblr.

Improve performance and stability: deliver crash-free, responsive, and fast-loading apps on Android, iOS, and web.

Improve quality: deliver the highest quality Tumblr experience to our users. 

Move faster: provide APIs and services to unblock core product initiatives and launch new features coming out of Labs.

Conclusion

Our mission has always been to empower the world’s creators. We are wholly committed to ensuring Tumblr evolves in a way that supports our current users while improving areas that attract new creators, artists, and users. You deserve a digital home that works for you. You deserve the best tools and features to connect with your communities on a platform that prioritizes the easy discoverability of high-quality content. This is an invigorating time for Tumblr, and we couldn’t be more excited about our current strategy.

[p-urest]

hiii why did u move from twitter to here n how’s it been? i kinda wanna do the same cuz i feel like twt has been taking sm time/attention away from me n im lowkey addicted atp :( but yea

hi hi ♡ i decided to make the move because twitter has just been sooo negative lately ! ik el*n buying twitter has contributed to it, but it’s not just right wingers who are negative on there </3 it just seems like everyone on tht app is trying to find something to be mad about just so they can get a hit tweet…. a lot of people like to say “oh thats just your algorithm”, but it’s really not…i didnt like or interact w any of that stuff but it was still pushed onto my tl because of how many likes it gets! my last straw was when people were genuinely upset over that cake because it had “so many flavors” (it really didnt, they just dont know much about baking and people like to hate on what they dont understand), and when people were hating on that gay couple during valentine’s day because they “looked alike” :( also ive had tumblr since i was like 11, it’s always been a sort of safe space for me because i can post about whatever i want , no matter how cringe yayy 🦄 (sometimes i log on to see how my moots are doing, but i try not to scroll too long)

if you feel that it’s been having a negative impact on you, i definitely suggest taking a little break! thats what i did with tiktok a year ago, i deleted it and never went back ❤︎

[stardustings]

Try as I might I’m just not vibing with Substack, and I hate the twitter style social media feeds, my brain can’t cope because I get addicted and overwhelmed in two seconds flat. Anyway, my dream is to have my own website again, the most beautiful and dreamy website in the entire world, then publish whatever I want whenever I want without thinking so much about algorithms or making a “publication” and fitting into all these dusty and crusty rules for success etc (if that’s what it takes I don’t want it). Then I will trust that I’ll know how to get it to reach people. I want it to build slowly and quietly, spread like a secret, gently reaching the right people at the right time and I know that this will all be Enough. No need for the disease of virality thank you 🕊️

[monkiekidtwt]

Genuine question, no hate! Why stay on lmk Twitter and repost stuff to here abt it if you dislike it so much? And why are we all arguing over which platform is better? They are all good and bad, there's no better over the other.

To answer this seriously: the reason I stay is because it’s where the majority of LMK fans are. It’s the only place where Monkie Kid News and other such resources resides, and it is often the place that first gets wind of stuff like new releases. If I want to have my finger on the pulse of the show, I sort of have no choice to be. So, while I’m there, I repost the good stuff.

I’ve never engaged in arguments that one social media is better than the other, mind. Just said that Twitter sucks. But the reasons why I dislike Twitter (especially fandom Twitter) are as follows:

A culture of directly harassing people for minor infractions, or what turns out to be misinformation (just the other day, a minor was harassed for something it turned out they didn’t do)

Idolization of big name fans (like I said in an earlier post; if you criticize a big name fan, then you’re gonna get dogpiled to hell and back, and if a big name fan says something, everyone will pretend they’ve always agreed, even if they’ve expressed the opposite recently)

Literal 24/7, unavoidable discourse that nobody tags (today, the topic of fandom-wide discussion was people who treat Mei like she gets in the way of Spicynoodles, which literally nobody does)

It is so hard to optimize your experience and curate your feed, because tagging is not built into the system (like, what would I filter other than ‘Spicynoodles’ to stop seeing the previous discourse, when the majority of them are just text posts with no tags? what if I like that ship and don’t wanna mute it?)

Even if you could curate it better, general social media stuff that everyone knows about Twitter at this point makes it so that you’re always seeing stuff that upsets you (it’s designed to addict you, and feeds you the algorithm which is designed to show you posts that make you upset or angry for engagement, plus more!)

And that’s not even getting into the Elon Musk of it all, or the fact that I’ve had multiple friends on there both watch and be victims of horrific harassment campaigns on LMKtwt that left them with literal trauma symptoms.

Compare this to tumblr:

The culture here is largely “block and move on”

The tagging system makes it easy for people to tag their discourse so I don’t have to see it

Since there is no algorithm, there is no issue with being fed posts to upset me

Harassment is less normalized, and when you are harassed, it’s usually via anon, which you can turn off to shut them up

I have never personally seen any people showing weird behavior towards fellow fans, which is either a sign that it doesn’t happen or that you’re able to curate your feed with minimum effort to never see it

Twitter is an infinitely worse experience, culturally and by social media design, but I stay there because it is where most of the LEGO Monkie Kid fandom is, plus the chill people that reside there sometimes.

So, that’s 1) why I hate it there, and 2) why I’m there anyway. And I run this blog to share the goodies with tumblr, so that nobody else has to feel obligated to be on LMKtwt like I feel that I do. Which is why I make jokes about making such a huge sacrifice for the sake of LMK tumblr, via running this blog.

[thenovus25]

1 Is AI software a possible solution to dis/misinformation on social media platforms? 

X(Twitter) has started to implement Ai on their app as a fact checking tool named Grok. An app as described by elon a “maximally truth-seeking AI”. This AI can be accessed in the app, ask a question then be tweeted as if the response was a tweet created by someone. As of recently, people on the app have been using it to troll right wing politicians or more so Elon Musk himself. I asked Grok the question, “who spreads the most disinformation on X?” The response was basically, it's hard to nail down specific people, but Elons and Donald Trump's names are  coming up a lot. It then goes into the numerous things that Elonand trump has said or tweeted in the last 5 ish years. It then also has links to 15 articles that are both based in the United States and in other countries outside of the X app that ask similar questions. It links to places like Forbes, The Washington Post, Metro.co.uk, among others. This brings us back to the question of, can AI be a tool / solution to combat disinformation? In the case of the Grok tool, yes it definitely can be a tool to use against disinformation. Whether it will stay like this is another question, but at this moment it seems to be spitting out sensible information that has some data to back it up. It obviously needs to be looked into way way further but could be promising if used correctly. 

2 Has “addiction” to social media and the use algorithms helped online political spaces help engage people into activism? 

Online political spaces are something that is being used now more than ever to help mobilize like minded people into creating change. It helps that the internet and social media has become embedded into everyone's life and thus can be seen by almost everyone that stumbles across it. Also the ever improving use of algorithms to curate content that you in specific will like has only exacerbated the engagement in these online political spaces. As this is still extremely new in its current form, it has some issues and kinks that need to be smoothed out but is overall an engaging tool. These spaces also help people who may not be able to actively participate in protests. People who are disabled, to young, caregivers, parents, etc.

3 When does free speech got o far on internet spaces? Can it be something that can even be addressed without it beeing seen as mass censorship? 

As we saw in the “A Timeline of Leslie Jones’s Horrific Online Abuse” article, the level and severity on online harassment can be absolutely brutal. Ranging from common bullying language to full on hate crimes. While these may has real consequences outside of the apps, within them it seems to be unchecked or unregulated. In the Pew study, 73% of people have witnessed online harassmement online, 73% is a massive number of people. With this type of behavior being so common on social media, is there even a way to handle it anymore? Can we even ban someone from an app permanently and lets say that is a viable solution, would that be an infringement on an individuals free speech? Would it be considerd an invasion of privacy?

4 Could anonymity on online spaces be seen as a “white hood”?

Anonymity online gives individuals the freedom to openly share and promote extreme views without fear of real-world consequences. This sense of invisibility encourages people to form communities around shared beliefs, where they can express ideas that might otherwise be marginalized. As these ideologies spread, they attract others with similar views, creating a network that strengthens and amplifies these beliefs.

In these communities, the lack of accountability fosters a strong sense of belonging, making it easier for these ideas to grow and gain traction. Over time, the ideas become more entrenched, and the group’s influence expands. With algorithms recommending similar content, these views can reach a wider audience, making it harder for opposing perspectives to break through, further cementing the spread of these extremist ideologies.

httpswww.pewresearch.orginternet20141022online-harassment.pdf

Timeline of Leslie Jones’s Horrific Online Abuse.pdf

[allylikethecat]

i hate inflicting more pain onto him but you do "insecure matty comforted by g" so well, could we get a little snippet on him reacting to all the "twink death" posts on twitter 🥹

HELLO KIND ANON!

Thank you so much for going rogue and just like... sending me a prompt that wasn't on any kind of list. If anyone else wants to just... send me a prompt situation from the depths of their mind I am HERE and READY for it!

This little snippet ended up being 2k words and I'm not totally sure how that happened and I was going to try and cut it down some but then decided that this was my blog so I can do what I want and we are full send posting the entire thing. I'm not sure if this is what you are looking for, but here we are! Also I mean no offense to anyone with this one (Fictional!Matty per the prompt is upset about the Twink Death posts and it sends him spiraling about his relationship with fans and also fictional!George) and I hope you enjoy it! Also I 100% made up the twitter handle and I mean no offense if there is anyone out there with that handle.

Thank you so much and let me know what you think!

❤️Ally

Matty knew he wasn’t supposed to be on Twitter anymore. His therapist had told him so, George had told him so. Social media was a cesspool, it wasn’t real life, and it only ever served to bring him down. Matty knew he had an addictive personality, and a short attention span, so sometimes it felt like social media had been made just for him, projecting colorful, easily digestable, bite size bits of information right to his brain. (Rationally he knew that was the entire point of an algorithm but that didn’t mean it made him feel any less special.)

Scrolling through Twitter was like pressing on a bruise, he couldn’t help but love the sting even though it only hurt him. Whenever he went on Twitter he ended up doom scrolling until he sent himself into a depressive spiral, focusing on all the people who hated him and wanted him to overdose and die, which he then coped with by getting drunk and posting the wrong thing. 

Matty knew he wasn’t supposed to be on Twitter anymore, but George was distracted and Matty was too tired to even sleep and apparently a masochist as he settled onto the hotel bed and re-downloaded the app, a white X on a black background instead of the blue bird he had grown to love to hate. He logged in quickly with one of his many burner accounts, a ‘75 fan account that no one had even joking speculated was actually him. A tingling thrill of anticipation moved up his spine, not unlike the buzz he used to feel when he went out to score, as his feed loaded. He quickly glanced over at George guilty, who was still staring intently at his laptop, sitting at the hotel desk, headphones on, working on something. He felt like a little kid with his hand in the cookie jar, just asking to be caught and disciplined.

Confident that George wouldn’t be paying him any mind, at least for a little while, Matty began scrolling. There were fans proclaiming their love for him, and that they wanted to have his babies, invasive fan theories about him and Ross of all people that couldn’t be further from the truth, pictures of Taylor in Brazil, then more pictures of her pretending she gave a rat's arse about football. Sandwiched between a gif of a cat falling off of the counter and a tweet proclaiming Jack Antanoff a chaos gremlin Matty saw it.

He nearly scrolled past the two pictures posted side by side. If he was going to be naughty and looking through twitter, he was going to at least try and avoid too much of his own press, but he couldn’t help but stop. It was a picture of him from 2014, he was on stage, clutching a microphone and a cigarette in the same hand, his pale blue button down half unbuttoned and nearly slipping off his shoulder, his collar bone jutting out razor sharp. His curls were overgrown and unbrushed, falling around his face, a dark curtain he used to desperately hide behind. He had a vague memory of that day, at least he thought it might have been that day. He had been wearing that shirt the first time George kissed him for real. It had been the last time he had worn the shirt as well, the buttons hadn’t survived George’s eager hands. 

The other picture was from a few nights ago, a tight gray tee shirt clinging to his chest and biceps, the mustache he had grown back at George’s sheepish request twitched in amusement. He looked so much healthier in the second photo, and he was surprised to see it, surprised to see how stark the contrast was. He was pleased that the fans were seeing it too, that they were seeing how much work he had been putting into himself. He wasn’t hiding behind his hair anymore, hence the shorter curls. He was eating better, he was working out. He was trying not to drink as much, he was trying not to smoke as much. He was, after years of therapy, and a few hospital stays that he was happy never actually made it into the press, and more patience and support from George than Matty was sure he deserved, he was actually doing well. The new combination of medication was helping, even if he didn’t want to admit it. 

Then he saw the caption. Twink Death. He blinked. What did they mean, twink death. He was actively taking steps to better himself and healyslut69 was clearly being ridiculous, acting like a piece of him had died. He was the same person, he just wasn’t twenty five and addicted to smack anymore. Not that he had ever been a twink in the first place. He was a manly man, thank you very much. He clicked on the tweet, eager to scroll through the thread and see the replies calling out healyslut69 for being absolutely ridiculous. Twink Death, he scoffed, absolutely ridiculous. That was until he saw that all of the replies were in agreement with healyslut69. They were all mourning his alleged twink death.

He let out a little whine of frustration, then quickly glanced up from his phone to make sure George hadn’t heard him. Thankfully, George was still engrossed in whatever track he was working on, headphones on, clicking away. This is absolutely ridiculous, Matty thought, thumbing away from the thread to go back to his feed. This group of fans didn’t know what they were on about. He frowned as he saw another post relating to the topic, then another, and then another. He swallowed hard. Maybe healyslut69 wasn’t the one that was wrong. Maybe he was. 

He scrolled up, finding the original tweet once again. He looked at the two photos, bringing his phone up closer to his face to examine them as if he wasn’t looking at the face he saw in the mirror every morning. Maybe he didn’t look like the same person anymore. Maybe it was more than just getting clean, cutting his hair and gaining at least a stone. Maybe a piece of him really had died. He swallowed hard, his thick smoker’s saliva catching in his throat causing him to cough wetly. At that George did turn his head, lifting one of the headphones away from his ear. 

“You ‘right?” George asked, frowning, as he took in the look on Matty’s face. 

Matty quickly waved him off. “Yeah, just swallowed wrong,” he said, flashing George a thumbs up.

George frowned but turned back to his laptop anyway and Matty went back to his phone, clicking on the original tweet must have triggered something in his algorithm because he was suddenly bombarded with posts about how much he had changed, how much the fans wanted the “old Matty back” how they wanted to “Make Matty Gay again” as if he wasn’t in a fucking relationship with a man and had been for the past nine years. 

The more he read the more the self doubt started creeping in. It was slow at first, and he almost didn’t notice it. It was like frostbite, creeping through his body, overwhelming his senses without him even realizing until it was too late. He pressed the side button to lock his phone and tossed it onto the bed, where it proceeded to slide off the sheets and land on the floor with a clatter. He let out a groan of frustration and self pity, pressing the heels of his palms to his eyes. He just couldn’t fucking win. 

“Okay,” said George, taking his headphones completely off and spinning around in the swivel chair to look at Matt, quickly glancing at his phone on the floor, then back to Matty. “What’s wrong?” 

“Nothing,” said Matty stubbornly, crossing his arms over his chest, feeling ridiculous for even being upset that some faceless fan account was mourning his supposed “twink death,” even as his lower lip began to tremble. Fuck Matty though, unable to meet George’s gaze and the loving concern he knew he was going to see painted across his face. He was going to start crying. He froze, feeling like a bucket of ice water had been dumped over his head. What if George didn’t find him as attractive anymore, what if George missed how he used to look, all skinny and delicate, with long messy hair, sucking on a cigarette instead of eating breakfast, lunch or dinner. 

What if that was why their sex life had gotten less active as they got older. They still had plenty of sex, and Matty had always been satisfied, but what if that was the reason the shirt destroying urgency was gone, what if that was why George wasn’t tossing him onto the nearest surface at every opportunity anymore. Matty had thought they were just getting older, maturing, leveling out, but what if George just wasn’t as attracted to him anymore?! What if that was why George had wanted him to grow the mustache, what if he was trying to find some new way to make sleeping with him less of a chore. 

Matty couldn’t help it, he looked up, at kind, sweet, understanding and supportive George, who forced himself to fuck him even though he wasn’t attracted to him anymore, and instantly burst into the tears he had been fighting. 

George blinked in surprise, clearly he hadn’t been expecting that. He stood up, closing the distance between them as he sat down next to Matty on the bed, carefully pulling him into his arms even as Matty kept his hands pressed to his face. 

“What’s wrong, love,” said George softly, rubbing a large hand in careful circles against Matty’s back. “Did something happen? Is your family okay?” 

Guilt burned in Matty’s stomach, as he pressed his hand to his mouth as if he could push all the upset back inside of his chest, as if he could swallow it back down to his belly where it belonged. 

“They’re fine,” Matty said with a hiccup, “I’m fine, sorry, fuck, I’m fine,” he rubbed at his eyes, even as his breath hitched, “you can get back to work, I’m fine.” 

“Matthew,” said George softly, pulling Matty’s hands away from his face. “Something is clearly wrong, what can I do to help?” 

George’s kindness just made Matty cry harder, burying his face in George’s shoulder. He knew he was being extremely dramatic and over the top right now, crying because some fans on the internet were mourning his alleged “twink death” was ridiculous even for him. But it wasn’t just about the fans on the internet, it was hundreds of little things he had pushed down until he just couldn’t take it anymore and it all boiled over. He wasn’t sure he wanted to be famous anymore, he wasn’t sure he ever had. 

It was the fans that seemed to hate him always criticizing his outfit choices, the ones complaining about the set lists he painstakingly put together, the ones who complained that he didn’t talk enough during gigs, and the ones who complained when he did. It was the fans, and not fans, that took every word he had ever spoken ever, and twisted it round in circles until it didn’t even make sense anymore. It was the ones accusing him of being the worst person alive. It was the ones wishing death upon him and his loved ones. It was the way that no matter what he did, no matter how much of himself he gave to the masses, it was never enough and never what they wanted. He was just so fucking tired, and seeing that tweet broke something inside of him in a way that he hadn’t been expecting. It filled him with even more self loathing and doubt, why had he even bothered to get clean, why had he even bothered to try and get healthy, everyone liked him better strung out anyway it seemed. 

“Just some dumb fans on the internet,” said Matty quietly, trying to get his breathing under control, George was still rubbing his back soothingly.

“Matty,” said George sadly, his heart breaking. He wasn’t going to address the fact that they both already knew Matty wasn’t supposed to be looking at Twitter. 

“Do you,” said Matty, pulling away slightly, needing to hear the words straight from George’s mouth, needing to rip the bandaid off. If George didn’t like him like this he would figure it out. He’d lose the weight again, he’d grow out his hair. “Do you,” he swallowed hard, “do you still like me?” 

“What kind of absolute bullshit question is that?” George asked, “of course I like you Matty, I fucking love you.” 

Matty swallowed again, weighing his words. “Are you, are you still attracted to me?” 

“Jesus Christ Matty,” said George, “what is this about? Yes I’m very much still attracted to you, always have been and always will be.” 

“Even though I’m not as,” Matty could bring himself to say the word, “delicate anymore?” he asked instead. 

“What do you mean?” George asked not following along. Matty sighed and pulled away from George’s arms, leaning over the side of the bed to retrieve his phone. He unlocked it, keeping his eyes down cast as he handed it to George.

George frowned, looking over the tweet, a crinkle forming between his eyebrows. He relocked Matty’s phone without saying a word and reached over to set it on the nightstand. 

“I,” said George leaning in and pushing Matty onto his back so he could hover over him. “Love you.” He kissed Matty’s deeply, licking into his mouth, before nipping lightly on his lower lip. “And I will always love you and think you’re the sexiest man alive.” 

“Even though I’m not a twink anymore?” Matty couldn’t help but ask even as he felt George’s erection digging into his thigh. 

George snorted. “If anything, it’s even hotter that I don’t have to worry about hurting you.” 

Matty couldn’t help the grin that broke out across his face, and George couldn’t help but kiss it away. 

[danthropologie]

twitter is so much better with it's muting feature. and im an f1 reddit addict but just not going on it for a few days does wonders bc the news cycle is so short over there. tumblr tbh is the worst bc you can only filter by days and people are not usually tagging their hate lol which i get!

the problem for me with twitter tho is like....yes there's a following feed, but 99% of the time i'm on there, i'm on the for you feed which just feeds shit algorithmically. and usually that's fine, but every so often when the hate gets REALLY crazy and there's tons of it, suddenly the algorithm is like 'you like daniel and this (hate) tweet mentions daniel, so obviously you want to see it!' 😭 no i fucking don't 😭😭😭😭😭

[illustrationcoursework3]

Finalised Main project ideas

After ruminating on the ideas I had thought of, I had wittled it down to three main concepts to decide from, those being-

Call to change for Birmingham city centre

•Critique on its cultural stagnation and reliance on development and big brands whilst demolishing independent Shops and defunding arts

•Mention The Square and Electric Cinema

•Criticise empty ugly buildings and landscape

•Spotlight independent and important areas of culture still present in Birmingham city centre that deserve preserving

This is a topic which interests me due to it being a huge concern to me and many others who live in Birmingham and the West Midlands, as due to the lack of funding from the council, barely any support is put into the arts and community, as well as no effort given to advertising affordable and independent events.

Two articles covering separate cases of iconic and historical landmarks in Birmingham city centre being shut down in place of development.

Observational drawings made whilst back in my home town of Birmingham, the left page being of a street corner in Balsall Heath, drawn whilst on the bus, the right page being misc illustrations of various subjects within a Café Nero in Birmingham city centre

Net Art and the current corporate nature of the internet

The conglomerated state of social media and other websites all sharing the same functions, simplistic designs and algorithms, causing all individuality to be lost of both the UI design, content, communities and users

The predatory nature of modern social media, intent on keeping its user base addicted in order to farm engagement for profit, prioritising frequent short-form low quality content

The current trend of social media sites blatantly advertising and promoting far-right ideological posts (eg, Twitter and Elon Musk, Far-Right pipeline on YouTube, homophobic & transphobic legislation added to Meta TOS)

Moss of humanity through incentivising AI

The importance of personal expression and how compartmentalising the internet has normalised bullying and hate.

Promoting the indie web and encouraging making personal websites

I had already researched these points previously within a past project, as well as briefly covering them within the ‘WWWILFing’ mini brief. I am incredibly passionate about this topic as I believe that many people, including myself, feel drained, stressed and pressured by social media, unknowing why or how to surpass it. It I were to develop this concept, I would want to educate people on the scummy business practices held by most big social media companies, seeing its customer base not as people but profit, jumping through any hoops and surpassing any morals in order to grab the largest pay check.

A history of language and code

In order to spread appreciation to language and how it connects everyone

Educate on the history of many unique language structures, how they were created and why they’re important (eg. Braille, sign language, Nüshi, morse code, etc)

Encourage preservation and appreciation of culture and identity

Encourage others to learn a separate language and to engage in other cultures as well as encourage literacy and an appreciation for history

How cultures perceive things differently through language expressions (colour, idioms, senses, etc)

This was a topic that drew my interest after partaking in the ‘Deliberately Lost’ project, as I found it really interesting to see how everyone characterised each other through their common speech patterns. If I were to continue further with this concept, I would hope to further research the deeper aspects to language and more notable messages and historical events to recount.

Presentation

Within my presentation, I displayed what I had made so far and explained my project ideas. Once hearing back from the group and my friends, I deduced that within the time frame, the language concept would be the most plausible to complete.

[bisluthq]

You know what I hate? Twitter. It was always the app people fought on and were rudest and forgot they were talking to actual people imo. But I keep deleting my account and the app. Then something happens and it’s the best place usually to find updates on things from train delays to election results without having to listen to the news casters. I try to curate it and follow national parks and wildlife conservation accounts from around the world, and then I won’t see anything bad when I want to look at the train delays updates. But of course I see something and go ‘what’s trump done now?’ And then my algorithm is fucked. But I feel like I’m addicted to it, and I say to myself before I open the app ‘time to see shit I hate and make myself scared’ but I still open it!

And I know they’re designed to make you mindlessly scroll for hours and get angry and yell at people, I know all these things. I had gone months without it and noticed I was calmer, but then I got the FOMO but it’s FOMO over BAD NEWS and a lot of stuff I can’t even do anything about. And I know it’s not good for me and is warping my sense of reality to a degree because I keep having MAGA type accounts pushed on me, so I’m thinking EVERYONE thinks like these people because they have the loudest voices on there.

But it’s also the only place I hear about any of the people protesting trump and other things, which gives me hope. And even if I try to avoid the news cycle and feel better because I’m not swamped with bullshit, I feel like I’m not educated on world events like I should be. But there are so many big things and constant changes happening all the damn time it’s impossible to keep up anyway!

So yeah. I guess that’s my rant that doesn’t really have a question or purpose but just sharing anyway. It’s like I don’t want to be desensitised to the crazy shit, but I don’t want to be affected by it either - which I don’t think is possible.

Twitter sucks ass but at the same time, yes - it’s very hard to quit it.

[venovenous]

I can see why so many people hate, yet simultaneously are addicted to Twitter now. The algorithm works to show you 95% of tweets that are politically aligned with your views, with the other 5% being the most outrageous, antagonizing cold takes you've ever seen in your life. It's just enough to infuriate you, but not so much that you don't shut down and abandon the app altogether. I can see why this website fuels acts of mass terror in some mentally ill people

[olderthannetfic]

Why did fandom think it was a good idea to move to twitter, it's impossible to find anything on there. Searching by Top gives you whatever the algorithm spits out as most popular, Latest gives you every tweet mentioning the thing even if there's no substance, images are automatically sorted by popularity and users' tweets can't be searched. Say what you will about tumblr's broken blog search function, but at least it works some of the time! I hate twitter.

--

People will go where the activity is. That's a lot of it.

Twitter favors the people who are online 24/7 from their phones and who don't have the brain space, energy, or interest to create long, in-depth content.

Twitter is also a good way to go viral, and if you're addicted to your stats, this matters.

I think it's stupid too, but as long as anybody reading this sorts AO3 by kudos, know that you're contributing to this. If you want those sweet kudos, you need to be perpetually driving people to your fanworks by twitter promotion. Tumblr can be okay for some fandoms, but the sheer virality and instant gratification of twitter is what's attracting fandom there.

Of course, there are fandoms that are in locked Facebook groups. There are communities on Dreamwidth. Plenty of fans have opted out of twitter.

[pablosoria]

Why did I uninstall Twitter?

My experience as a Twitter user finished with some reflections about what's going on in the communication between people.

I started on this social media to be informed about politics and sports but in a short period, I fell into procrastination. I realize that was a guy on his mobile phone spending a lot of time looking for users with the same opinions that I have or had only for a second of satisfaction.

Twitter is so addictive because it has an algorithm that shows you opposite opinions, and If we don't know how to control our emotions this can be dangerous. I've seen people go crazy and be so disrespectful to users who don't think the same, after that I understood that Twitter is a place full of hate, a ridiculous battle of egos backed by anonymity.

I invite you to uninstall Twitter, discover different ways to be informed about the topics that you like, and practice assertiveness in your relationships.

[eurofox]

Idk about Tumblr being the 'site for weirdos ', I found a lot more insufferable oddballs during my month on Twitter than I ever have here.

But maybe that's because of the algorithm, because I'd hate read some trad bloggers, sexpats or such, fight with a few of them, and then get recommend more in suggested tweets.

I did find a few cool people, but they were outnumbered.

It was addictive, but only in that way where reading stuff I hate gets the blood boiling. Being a hater is addictive and it's easier on that site. I'm sticking with handpicked tweets brought to this site from now on, same as tiktoks. Also I was banned so lol.