It’s Twitter, so let’s just call it that

OK, I’ve had it with the stupid phrase. Some examples:

Thank you for that last one. I appreciate the explanation. I understand. The AP says write it this way, so all journalists do. If you search for the exact phrase “formerly known as Twitter” on Google, you get 123,000 hits. (Actually, that’s what you get under the subheading “News,” which is the way I usually search. If you switch to “All,” you get 6,190,000.)

What is this, the 1980s, when we had to endure “the artist formerly known as Prince” over and over and over on MTV? Until Logo. Hollow circle above downward arrow crossed with a curlicued horn-shaped symbol and then a short bar  finally decided to be sensible and went back to “Prince,” which I actually did not expect him to do, but appreciated.

I don’t expect Elon Musk to come to his senses, either. Maybe he will, even though he seems to be even less grounded than Prince. I just listened to an audio version of Ronan Farrow’s piece about him in The New Yorker. Yikes.

So let’s just call it what it is — Twitter. Or, since it’s officially been stripped of its name, maybe just twitter. That way, we can use it in Scrabble. No more proper name. Just people calling a thing what it is.

“X” does have one slight advantage over the Prince symbol. At least you can say it. That was the challenge facing those veejays back in the ”80s — they had to say it, and the new “name” couldn’t be said. But although you can say it, “X” is not a name. It’s the negation of a name. Brand X. The thing illiterates scrawl when they can’t write their, you know, names.

Why do people have to write “formerly known as Twitter” after “X?” Because “X” is meaningless, and does not communicate what you are attempting to identify to a reader. You have to explain it. It would be nice to do it more honestly. Just call it “Twitter,” or “twitter,” or if you feel somehow obligated to obey Musk, write “X (Twitter).”

Or how about “Twitter, which one guy on the planet calls X?”

People who use it every day have to call it something. We are a verbalizing species.

So let’s call it what we know it to be: Twitter.

7 thoughts on “It’s Twitter, so let’s just call it that”

  1. bud

    Here’s a few more:

    ESSO instead of Exxon
    Carolina Stadium instead of Williams-Brice
    Armistice Day instead of Veterans Day
    And let’s stop calling the War Department the “Defense Department”.

  2. Barry

    I deleted Twitter.

    I had noticed over the past 3-4 months much more racist, vile, vulgar stuff being posted. The anti gay, anti trans stuff was just way, way, way over the top.

    It seemed as if Twitter was promoting some of the posts because no matter how many times I ignored or made it clear I wasn’t interested in some topics, they seemed to show up even more every time I signed on.

    I read a report this weekend that Twitter has lost a ton of advertisers because they do not walk to see their ads next to some of the awful stuff that seems to be increasing on the site.

    I deleted and deactivated.

  3. Barry

    “I don’t expect Elon Musk to come to his senses, either. Maybe he will, even though he seems to be even less grounded than Prince. I just listened to an audio version of Ronan Farrow’s piece about him in The New Yorker. Yikes.”

    For those that haven’t read it….

    Musk has slowly become a right wing troll – shocking his friends because only until recently he wasn’t remotely interested in politics.

    Musk self medicates with a variety of substances including drugs. (I bet the law and order crowd in Texas will ignore this though because- again- he’s become a right wing troll).

    Friends say he is under incredible stress- unrelenting stress and his personal life is a mess.

    BTW- That’s a recipe for a very, very, very bad outcome.

    1. Doug Ross

      [deleted comments about fellow commenter]

      The only stuff I see that is “objectionable” on Twitter (I don’t call it X) is the content Libs of Tiktok posts of actual people/teachers/school boards/etc. who are trying to force their woke /bizarre fetishes on the public. Just like with anything objectionable, if you see it and reject it, it isn’t a problem.

      Social media can give an impression of the world that is completely false. Racism exists but in far fewer actual cases and events than 10 years ago, 20 years ago, 50 years ago. Social media amplifies the edge cases to inflame the emotions of the easily duped people.

      1. Barry

        I have to say I don’t waste my time with such- but

        You mean Libs of TikTok that promotes the lie that gay people are groomers and are mostly pedophiles? Or accusing certain medical facilities of performing surgeries that they were not performing all to generate hateful rhetoric – which caused others to issue death threats against doctors and other people?

        Interesting group to pay attention to.

        or like the time they posted a made up complaint about a school in Canada that had bulletin board that promoted “positive spaces” for children and mentioned the different pride flags that are used now in an effort to generate harassment against school officials- which of course worked- and school officials received death threats.

        As others have pointed out better than I, the most interesting thing about Libs of TikTok is what they ignore about right wing hate directed at other people- like death threats and threats of other types of violence issued by people on the right that they ignore.

  4. Barry

    Right wingers in Texas seeking to censor college faculty and employees and escalate tensions.

    I also noted the esteemed elected Texas Republicans and personal insult throwing Lt. Governor who has sought retribution against a faculty member they accused (evidence proved otherwise) of saying something negative about the insult throwing Lt. Governor.

    Rules for me, not for thee.

    Acting President Welsh told The Post that the case was about a flawed hiring process — not race. But Welsh knows what a lot of people think: “This was a Black professor who Texas A&M decided they didn’t want.”

    Behind the lines of Texas A&M’s diversity war

    A controversy over a Black professor’s hire inflamed campus tensions. A DEI ban could escalate the conflict.

    https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2023/09/05/texas-am-university-diversity-sb17/?utm_campaign=wp_post_most&utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter&wpisrc=nl_most

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