Twitter users, sensing the end of an era, confess their secrets

“If Twitter implodes this is your last chance to tell me you’re in love with me so shoot your shot,” one user wrote, posting pictures of herself. Photo / Jim Wilson, The New York Times

Users disclosed long-ago indiscretions, made pleas for money and revealed silly quirks as they feared the social platform’s days might be numbered.

In the chaos that followed Elon Musk’s takeover of Twitter, one user, thinking the platform might not be around much longer, revealed a secret from her college days. Another made a last-minute plea to crowdfund her medical bills. Another admitted she bit into whole Kit Kat bars without breaking them apart first.

In recent weeks, Twitter has laid off nearly half its employees, executives have resigned, advertisers have pulled back, and Musk has struggled to calm concerns that misinformation and hate speech might spread on the platform. Though there are no official signs that Twitter is going anywhere, users who feared Twitter might be in its final days have posted last-minute announcements and appeals. Some seemed to be mocking the platform’s troubles, while others posted like mourners at a wake, fearing a real Armageddon for a place where they have built networks, spread and read information and, sometimes, fallen in love.

“I feel bad about doing this, but Twitter is probably going down soon and this is the last chance to get this circulated,” Amber Brown, 28, a streaming producer from Los Angeles, wrote on Twitter. “Help fix my liver!” She added a link to her GoFundMe petition, on which she is asking for help to pay her medical bills.

“If Twitter implodes this is your last chance to tell me you’re in love with me so shoot your shot,” Phoebe Kimball wrote on Twitter, posting a series of pictures of herself.

“Now is your last chance to please give me a job before Twitter goes down please,” wrote Daniel Spenser, 35, a designer in the Brooklyn borough of New York City who is looking for work.

Since Musk’s takeover, some Twitter users have moved to other social media platforms, including Mastodon, which describes itself as “a viable alternative to Twitter.”

Jack Orchard, 31, a researcher in England, said that “before everyone flees,” he wanted to let his Twitter followers know that his daughter, Cherry Jo, was born. Orchard said in a message that he liked Twitter as “a place where I can be pretty unfiltered and informal, but still talking to my peers,” but that if too many of his colleagues left, “I’ll probably leave too.”

Jennifer Crawford, 49, an architect in Sydney, wrote that before Twitter “implodes” entirely, she wanted to confess something she did when she was a university student. “I once took a cask of peach cooler to a uni party and left it under the table,” she wrote, referring to the nonalcoholic fruit cocktail. “I was 18. Give me a break.”

Kelly Connolly, an editor in Asheville, North Carolina, wrote that because “the Twitter vibe has shifted dramatically” she was going to use “my last chance to casually drop into a Tweet that I’ve picked up ballet.”

Andrew Tobolowsky, a professor in Williamsburg, Virginia, shared a picture of his son Judah for people to enjoy “Before Twitter ends.”

Before Twitter ends, please enjoy this tiny, somewhat confused owl courtesy of @SarahEBond pic.twitter.com/huVoLUmm1M

— AToBOOlowsky (@ATobolowsky) November 11, 2022

Users took to the platform to announce coming books and papers; say their goodbyes, and thank friends and followers; or ask for donations to charities and campaigns. Some tried a last-ditch effort at a joke that had previously fallen flat or asked followers to confess their crushes. Some described the atmosphere like the last days of high school. Others used similar metaphors.

“Twitter currently feels like one of the last Blockbuster stores where every time you went you knew it could be the last one,” wrote Santiago Mayer, a leader in the get-out-the-vote youth movement.

Author Sara Gibbs compared the feeling on Twitter to “the last days of Rome,” while Lauren Hough, another author, said the platform was fun again. “It’s like drinking the last of liquor and smoking indoors and trying on whatever’s left in coat check,” she wrote.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

Written by: Emma Bubola

Photographs by: Jim Wilson

©2022 THE NEW YORK TIMES