I’ve been using Twitter since May of 2010, writing over 50,000 (re)tweets. It used to be a great platform that would connect you with news outlets, celebrities, artists and fun parody accounts alike. Then Elon Musk happened and systematically removed all good features (most importantly verified accounts) as well as changed the algorithm to serve his political views and spread disinformation. Instead of blocking or banning people who harass others or are clearly breaking the law, Elon only seems to ban those he personally dislikes. 

Many users are leaving the platform now known as X (probably the worst rebranding in human history) behind, and I will be one of them. Bluesky isn’t perfect, but it’s where I’ll be active from now on. Some people only care about numbers, so they need to see that there are fewer active profiles on their increasingly fascist platform. It probably won’t change much, but it’s the one message we as users can send them. So I deactivated my profile 10 minutes ago. Probably for good. 

The only reason I kept my X profile active this long was to prevent identity theft (I don’t really know what will happen to my handle now). That’s why I am posting here and now to say that if you find a G. Smith on X in the future, it isn’t me. 

I’m thinking about deactivating my Instagram profile as well since I haven’t been active there in years anyway. I’ll keep Facebook because some of my earliest fans are still liking and commenting on my poems sometimes. I recognize their names and wouldn’t want to sever this connection. 

That’s all the news for now. See you in 2025.