Viral

The Internet Responds Poorly To The News That Twitter Will Be Changing Its Timeline

twitter_rip
Shutterstock / Twitter

Users on Twitter are calling it the end of the social media platform. No, the Doomsday Clock hasn’t finally ticked to midnight and Barack Obama didn’t suddenly reveal that every bad rumor about him is true. Instead it’s worse. Twitter is changing it’s timeline.

A report from Buzzfeed News notes that the social media giant will be adopting an algorithmic timeline as early as next week, topping the possible end of Twitter’s 140 character limit as the worst thing to ever happen to the Internet — at least according to people who use Twitter:

As BuzzFeed News reported in June, an algorithmic timeline represents a way for Twitter to elevate popular content, and could solve some of Twitter’s signal-to-noise problems. It is also widely assumed to be anathema to the platform’s typically vocal power users.

Yet, Jack Dorsey, who took the reins of Twitter as permanent CEO in October, has expressed a willingness to rethink the platform’s core tenets. “We continue to show a questioning of our fundamentals in order to make the product easier and more accessible to more people,” he said in July. In November, the company killed off the traditional term favorites and replaced it with likes. An algorithmic feed would be, to date, the boldest change so far under Dorsey.

Some, like Josh Sternberg at NBC News, are reporting that the changes will be opt in only, but many online already have Twitter picking out a tombstone in the coming months.

If you head over to Twitter, you might see the hashtag #RIPTwitter. It’s full of reactions to the proposed changes — or overreactions if that’s more your view on the situation. Some seem to be having a lot of fun with it at least, but others are acting like it is the end of an era.

https://twitter.com/biebertuesdays/status/695977515198775296

https://twitter.com/emilysteers/status/695805381029724160

https://twitter.com/MrJonathanKing/status/695806061165543424

https://twitter.com/NICKWALSH/status/695803230370959360

https://twitter.com/debostic/status/695976939312521216

The only sure thing in the entire thing is that people are getting plenty of use for their best reaction gifs and images:

https://twitter.com/PotterReacts/status/695974905393913857

https://twitter.com/benking_bk/status/695974585825538051

https://twitter.com/__vna/status/695974223957733376

https://twitter.com/GameThroneReact/status/695973974153498624

https://twitter.com/grandewhispers/status/695973013301362690

https://twitter.com/MariamHosny1997/status/695980110818705408

https://twitter.com/jakefogelnest/status/695880377739522048

And according to Alex B., it would seem that the people behind Twitter are new to how this whole thing works:

https://twitter.com/SIGKILL/status/695860128222842880

(Via Buzzfeed News / The Verge)

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