Why The New Twitter Updates Have Users Up in Arms

If you’ve been following social media news in the past week, you’ve probably heard that Twitter has been making major changes, and avid users are less than thrilled about it.

The company is introducing an algorithmic timeline to replace its traditional reverse-chronological order feed. The new timeline, which is opt-in only (for now), will push popular content to the top of your feed based on Twitter’s algorithms. The company has also been hinting at plans to get rid of its 140-character limit, one of the site’s most distinguishing features. Lastly, they’re introducing First View, which will allow brands to secure top positions on users’ timelines. Some argue that these changes will destroy the Twitter we know and love, prompting the #RIPTwitter hashtag. Common complaints are that the new timeline will ruin live-tweeting and that the platform will become too similar to Facebook.

While the changes are unpopular with native Twitter users, they’re hardly surprising from a company standpoint; their stock price has fallen nearly 70% in the past year and user growth has been at a standstill. The move is meant to attract those who use Twitter rarely, or not at all, and to bring in advertisers.

Outcries over changes in beloved social media platforms are nothing new, and in all likelihood, the “death of Twitter” won’t be an issue for too long. However, I think we can all get behind another social media update that happened this week: Instagram now lets you switch back and forth between accounts. If you’ve ever been in charge of a brands’ Instagram account, you’ve probably experienced the annoyance of having to sign in and out of your personal one (or accidentally posting to the wrong one, if you’re really unlucky). This should be a collective sigh of relief for marketers and novelty account holders everywhere.

Social media is constantly evolving, and users aren’t shy to voice their opinions when changes are made. When creating our own social media content, it’s always helpful to stay up to date on what makes people tick.