Opinion: Students Can Save Twitter
Users await the fall of Twitter under Elon Musk. But students could be the solution.
New York City, NY — by Alexandra Cohen
This story was originally published on New York University’s Washington Square News.
Billionaire Elon Musk bought Twitter for $44 billion — something that would be hilarious as a “Saturday Night Live” sketch, but is not funny in real life. Since his purchase of the platform on Oct. 28, Musk has fired executives, issued layoffs, and tried to change the way the company and social media app runs.
He restructured and then paused Twitter Blue, a program that allows any user to pay $7.99 per month for verification, and would require those who were previously verified to pay monthly.
With Musk as CEO, Twitter has been nothing short of an absolute shitshow, which was to be expected when it was purchased by a billionaire who loves to play around with anything in his reach — which to him, is everything. However, Musk was correct about one thing, or at least he had the right idea when he called Twitter “a common digital town square, where a wide range of beliefs can be debated in a healthy manner.” That’s exactly what Twitter should be and what discourse in general should be, yet what social media always fails to be.
Students just like us could revive Twitter. Our generation didn’t flock to the bird app the way older generations did, perhaps because it’s easier to look at pictures and videos on Instagram and TikTok. It could be because we’ve grown up learning to be cautious of our digital footprint, and the tweets that go viral won’t always lead to college acceptances or job opportunities. The truth of the matter is that Gen Z does not use Twitter as much as older generations. We also don’t need another place to be divided or distracted — but Twitter needs us.
Read the rest of the story at Washington Square News.