Though he probably would have blocked the loo at the same time.
I think it’s horses for courses. I had tickets booked to Australia in 2020… Contacting Qantas via
the phone was difficult with hold times of more than two hours. Contacting them via twitter allowed me to progress the refund when all other channels seemed to be blocked.
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Until I read this thread I thought I was all alone in the world as a non Twitter user! It has made my day that others think the same. I agree the platform probably does have some uses (such as train toilet paper ordering 
), but unfortunately I think overall it seems to do more harm than good (IMHO of course).
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Because it’s a data mining tool. Companies do monitor it though and I had to write an internal tool for monitoring it for the company I worked for. 
Sure yes. That’s the way it works now. Up to you what data you leave there for people to mine though.
As you will have gathered, I’m not of the anti-Google, anti-Apple, anti-Amazon persuasion at all. I’m also not naive, although maybe I am a bit complacent. But I’m getting old, so I do what I want to do.
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I joined Twitter fairly soon after it launched at the urging of a techie family member and have hardly ever used it. Not sure why but it has never really grabbed my attention and I have chosen other social media. The family member who encouraged me to join has urged me to post links to my blog on my Twitter feed, I have never got around to it, which I suspect reflects more on me than it does on Twitter.
I rarely post (tweet) on Twitter but I do often read stuff there, partly because a good friend sends me all sorts of interesting things he comes across, as he follows all sorts of people. It can be a very good way to keep really up to date on developing political and social issues. I think the key is to make it work for you rather than you work for it.
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Sounds like a good idea. I do sometimes read through Twitter threads that are published in the press, but I find the text message length of the tweets difficult. Personally, I would prefer a single message.
Given that Twitter has almost unquestionably influenced the outcome of several elections around the world, and seems guaranteed to do so in the future, I’m astounded that so many people above seem to think that who runs Twitter and with what policies and algorithms has no impact on them.
You might loathe Twitter with every fibre of your being and never have sullied yourself with it personally, but to think it has no effect on us in some way other, for good or ill, is deeply naive.
Mark
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Not naive at all. It’s more of a reflection of how stupid and gullible society has become if social media networks can have that much influence.
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Baffled
Snarky, ok, but who on earth is Marina Hyde???
Sometimes I feel I’m living in an alternate universe.
The text nails it is a link to this column by Guardian columnist Marina Hyde:
Post edited to put the link in a onebox now that I know how to do it
Great opinion piece in the Guardian titled ‘What better owner for Twitter than Elon Musk, master of the ill-advised tweet?’
Well, when I say great I probably mean I found it amusing since it was attuned with my prejudices…
Marina Hyde does write this kind of piecw well (IMO).
Thanks to the OP for drawing my attention to it!
Ahh, I see, didn’t appreciate it was a hyperlink reading your post on my phone, the font colour is so similar to that of standard text.
Indeed. The way links are formatted on this site (that is, not at all) rather defeats the purpose of trying to weave the link text into the sentence.
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Seriously, he has changed2 the auto industry by introducing electric vehicles that everybody likes and that reduce both pollution and carbon emissions. Tesla has higher profits than GM or Ford despite selling fewer vehicles.
He has brought US back into space with SpaceX.
His Boring Company is able to dig tunnels faster, cheaper and more environmentally friendly than any others.
His Nuralink venture may well help physically disadvantaged people.
Musk is a flawed genius but he has already done so much to help us It is Tesla rather than government future plans that have forced traditional auto manufacturers into EV.
Also, please consider the vile accusation in the post by Chris SU.