goodbye to the bird, hello to the x

As you may have seen, Twitter/Elon Musk has decided to ditch the iconic blue and white bird logo and replace it with the letter "X." 

Twitter is a huge part of pop culture. The blue and white bird logo produced the popular term "tweet." This made its brand so memorable. If you were to show people the bird logo, most would immediately recognize it as Twitter. 

So why the change? According to The New York Times, Elon Musk hopes to turn Twitter into an “everything app” called X, which would encompass not only social networking but also banking and shopping. 

However, this change is not being received well by Twitter users...even me, a former Twitter user. I think all of the changes after Elon Musk acquired Twitter have not been received very well. This change coincidently comes after its rival, Meta, released Threads...or was it all a plan from the beginning? Who knows.

What I am curious about with platforms like Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram is what drives their changes. The answers that pop up in my head are profits, creating something more innovative than rivals, and increasing users of the platform. But when big changes like the one for "X.com" (aka Twitter) take place...is the user's feedback/opinion relevant? 

All of this reminds me of Myspace, why it failed, and why users jumped on Facebook. I never actually knew the reason why Myspace failed...I was still enjoying it in my teen years but eventually transitioned to Facebook because most of my friends did. This article discusses why Myspace failed if you're interested. One part that stood out for me in the article was how Myspace failed to facilitate the interaction between its customers while focusing on advertising and other features. 

I am curious to see what comes out of this big change for Twitter...I mean "X."

So long, little blue bird.


NPR: After rebranding, X took @x from its original Twitter owner and offered him merch. 

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