Is it time for creatives to leave X for good?

It’s been an ugly summer of violence and thuggery in the UK. And while the reasons for that are detailed and complex, the spark that lit the fuse was certainly the misinformation that spread like wildfire on X. Platform owner Elon Musk, meanwhile, has added extra fuel by sharing inflammatory and false claims with his millions of followers.

This is just the latest chapter in Musk’s apparent campaign to upset as many people as possible. His ardent support for free speech has upset those who feel that speech needs to be moderated. Yet free speech supporters are upset too because Musk’s actions have stood in stark contrast to his words; arbitrarily suspending journalists and others whose speech he doesn’t like.

So, it’s not surprising that people are wondering whether this is the time to leave the platform in protest. And it’s not like this is a new or unprecedented idea.

End of an era

As we’ve been reporting a while now, the consensus from the creative community seems to be that X, and social media in general, is not what it used to be.

On a basic level, the days when you could simply choose whom to follow and then see their posts in chronological order are now long gone. Instead, our feeds are manipulated by algorithms that don’t seem to have our interests at heart.

It means we’re not getting the content we expect, nor are our followers. Consequently, we’re getting only a fraction of the engagement we used to enjoy.

Social media, in short, is getting less social.

The instinct to leave

For this reason alone, it feels tempting to chuck it all in. The idea of cancelling your X or Instagram account seems like you’re taking positive action, a blow to your personal liberty. “The algorithms shall not control me!” you cry in your head.

But then, in the cold light of day, you realise that’s probably self-defeating.

It’s a bit like if your train service became seriously unreliable. You’d rant, you’d rave, you’d tell yourself, “Screw them, I’m not going to renew my season pass!” But when that time came, you’d realise that driving to work would be a massive pain, and sticking with the train is still the best choice overall.

That said, if people insulted you or shouted abuse every time you got on the train or were just plain annoying, you might opt for the car anyway. So is that where we’re getting to with X, now?

To take the temperature of our community, we asked those still on X whether they were thinking of jumping ship and those on Threads how they felt about the new place. We share some of their thoughts below, while you can read them all on X and Threads.

Creatives! Due to recent events, loads of people seem to be leaving X/Twitter. Is this the end of an era? Are you thinking of going, too? What are your thoughts? I’m pulling together an article for @creativeboom. Reply below, and I’ll include your quotes with a link. Thanks!

— Katy Cowan (@katylcowan) August 8, 2024

“I’m staying for positive reasons”

We’ll start with some positivity. Our experience of any social media platform is ultimately about the people we interact with. And it seems there are still plenty of good people and good discussions to be found on X.

As writer Emma Lee points out: “Within days, a crowdfunder on X for a library exceeded £150k, another has replaced a carer’s car destroyed by vandals, Five Leaves is offering a safe space in Nottingham and the #WritingCommunity are wonderful.” To her, the message is clear: “Amplify what you want to see, not the clickbait.”

Social media marketer Julia Bramble takes a similar line. “Given what the person who owns X has been sharing recently, I want to leave,” she says. “But there’s still a fantastic community here, and that’s why I’m staying.”

As does freelance designer Peter McCollough·. “There are still lovely people here, and I have Twitter friends I’d miss,” he says. “Yes, there is a lot more nonsense on here these days, but I think it’s important to hear what people think even if you disagree with them entirely. Kindness and hope.”

In particular, it seems that anyone involved in words, whether that be authors, copywriters or journalists, still sees value in X. As writer and editor Allison K Williams says: “There are still writers here. There are still readers here. It’s the easiest and lowest-hassle social network and where I can most smoothly interact with people I don’t already know, which feels important.

“I don’t want to just see the people I know,” she adds. “I want to see tangents and new ideas and the moveable middle, and it’s worth dealing with – ignoring – spambots and crypto ads to do that.” And publicist Dara Avenius speaks for many in saying: “I’m on Twitter because so many journalists are still here and announce their new jobs, as well as their #journorequests. I haven’t found Threads as helpful and energetic in that way yet, so I haven’t moved over fully yet.”

“I’m staying because I have nowhere to go”

Many others, though, are less enthusiastic about remaining on Twitter. Only they don’t feel like they have a better alternative.

Freelance illustrator and UI designer Ollie Hoff, for one, doesn’t mince his words. “I hate that I’m still here,” he says. “I would happily leave, but it’s been so useful over the years to find work as a freelance illustrator. Plus, it doesn’t feel like there’s anywhere else to go.”

Software consultant Allen Holub is equally explicit. “I’d love to leave, as even Tech Twitter gets increasingly toxic in line with the rest of the platform,” he says. “But I don’t see anywhere to go. I feel trapped.”

And UX consultant Becky Colley tells a story that will be familiar to many. “Like everyone else, I tried Threads, VERO, Mastodon, and Bluesky,” she says. “But none of them stick because they simply don’t have the community X has. Unfortunately, that takes time to build, so there’s no lift and shift. We’d all have to agree where we’re going and move simultaneously.”

“I’m staying but stepping back”

Many, then, are responding to X’s changing nature more subtly by simply stepping back from the platform and using it less.

Illustrator and designer Paul Johnson tells a typical tale. “I’m still here to see news and people I follow, but I really engage only in the areas I want to. I post my illustration and design work here, but the interaction is generally low across all social media.”

Illustrator Matt Richards puts it more bluntly. “It’s turned into the crazy bar at the end of town that I can’t resist popping in,” he says. “I barely interact now, just spectating the madness.”

Staying but stepping back, in a way, offers the best of both worlds. You don’t waste your work time on X when you could be doing something productive, but your account is still there if you need it. Like growth strategist Darnell Brown, who explains: “I ‘left’ this place in January in terms of treating this as a serious platform on which to build my professional network and audience, and I don’t post any more. But I do come here to see updates from my favourite brands.”

“I’m limiting what I see on X.”

A variation on this theme is to stay on X but use the existing features to limit what you see and whom you interact with. For example, illustrator Niki Groom says: “I’ve always loved it here, but this week I’ve finally put my account on private. I don’t consider it a safe space, and I use it less and less. I think it probably is the end of an era. I’ll spend more time on Substack, Instagram and – shock horror – out in the real world.”

Similarly, photographer Gill Moore says she’s “staying for now, but using the Lists feature. Curating a ‘Nice Twitterer List’ so I never have to actually view my For You timeline. I’d love to leave here, but all other options are either still owned by megalomaniacs or have low user numbers. Although I am trying to engage more on my BlueSky.”

This nuanced approach can be particularly useful for agencies, who may feel pulled in conflicting directions with all of this. Collateral Damage Studios says, for example: “We are still on Twitter, for now. We have learned that being liberal in blocking accounts with awful content makes for a significantly better Twitter experience. This practice is great for any social media platform. That said, ultimately, studios go to where their clients will be. No other platform can claim to replace Twitter in sheer volume yet.”

Rather than leave, then, they’re trying to grow our presence on alternative platforms such as Threads instead. “So that when the day that X truly dies, we already have something elsewhere. But for now, we are still on X. Our attention span has been spread out, but we still maintain some presence there.”

Nathalie Crease of Fiasco Design is taking a similar attitude. “X hasn’t been my go-to platform for a while,” she says. “‘Design Twitter’ no longer seems to exist, with many having made the jump over to LinkedIn, Threads or even Cara, so there’s not much of a community left. Since the Musk takeover, I’ve seen a real change in tone and a huge increase in explicit content, and an algorithm that seems determined to serve me up far-right ideals. Yet despite this, we’ve kept Fiasco on X. Not investing much time into content, but we’re still doing the odd post to keep our profile alive.”

Why? “It felt important that we still had a presence on one of the biggest social media platforms in the world, with 350+ million active users, supposedly,” she says. “But the events of the last week or so, and Musk’s words and actions might be the tipping point. So for now, we will pull back on engaging with X. We’ll leave our profile live, but I won’t be sharing any content there or engaging in the near future.”

“I’m enjoying using Threads.”

So what about Threads? Of those who’ve made the move, we’re hearing generally positive things. Writer and content marketing expert Ashley R. Cummings says: “I’ve been spending way more time on Threads, as @travelwithashley. Threads is so wholesome. It’s positive, not run with a political motive at the forefront, and hasn’t been taken over by ads yet. I think Threads is what Twitter used to be.”

Strategic marketing leader Mike Allton agrees. “I am absolutely turning my time and attention to other platforms, particularly Threads, where actual, healthy connections and discourse are happening, and users aren’t being milked for every dime,” he says.

Threads is linked to Instagram, and designer Patrick O’Leary sees it as logical to use both. “My aim going forward is to show my work on Insta and talk about it on Threads,” he explains. “The connection between the two has the potential to be more powerful than the best version of X ever was. I left X last week: I want my time online to be spent sharing work and engaging with a like-minded community, not whatever awful thing is ‘trending’ on Twitter today.”

Most people agree, though, that Threads doesn’t feel quite fully formed yet. Designer Nigel Ball points out that: “While Threads is a lot more of a pleasant experience, and I’m enjoying many of the interactions I’m having here, the single hashtag function isn’t particularly good for academic research or developing connections. It doesn’t feel like Threads has fully found its mojo yet, although nothing could tempt me back to X while Musk is at the helm.”

“I’m staying on X for good”

The idea that Threads hasn’t “found its mojo yet” will ring true with even its most ardent fans. And realistically, that’s largely because most people are still on Twitter, like it or not.

As we’ve detailed, some of these may be unhappy and looking for an exit strategy. But others are quite clear that they’re in it for the long haul.

“I’m absolutely not leaving Twitter under any circumstances,” says SEO specialist Gemma Brunson. “It’s so easy to curate your timeline here. And for those who are overly sensitive or too emotionally unstable, they easily use the available tools: mute words, mute accounts and block accounts.”

“It’s still the best social media platform,” says Nick Entwistle, founder of the Bank of Creativity. “It now has more freedom of speech whereas before they controlled what people said and who could say it.” And design consultant Joseph N. Wagar states: “I’m never leaving this app. There is no better platform for finding business opportunities. There is no better platform for exercising your right to free speech.”

Photographer Mark Krajnak adds: “This platform is still a great way for me to find news and creative content from websites, magazines, books, people that I may otherwise miss. Yes, some nastiness on here, but the good still outweighs the bad for me. I’m stayin’.”

And author Dr Sara Lodge strikes a note of defiance. “I hate giving in to bullies,” she says.” I don’t like being evicted from a community where I have made so many friends. I think of all the horrid stuff as racist graffiti. The town ain’t that.”

Firedrake Studio adopts a similar metaphor. “It’s like reading the spray paint on a grimy Berlin Wall, but hey, that’s kinda where creatives hang out. If you can turn a blind eye to the politics, I think X is still popping. Follow the ones you want, and block the ones you don’t. Just like in life.”