A lot of things have happened since Elon Musk has taken over Twitter, things that have convinced people it was time to leave the blue bird’s nest. If you’re one of them but don’t know where to go, here are some alternatives we suggest you could try.
When Elon Musk announced he was planning to take over Twitter, many people thought it would be a fresh change for a social media platform steeped in toxicity. Well, Musk is barely a month into his leadership of Twitter and it’s become… well, more of a dumpster fire than it already was.
An uptick of racist tweets, the debacle that was Twitter Blue, the ensuing suspension of the subscription service in an effort to stop parody accounts, and not to mention Musk’s firing of employees, some of which were allegedly fired only because they disagreed with him—Musk’s Twitter is a flaming disaster. Many of its users want out, and unsurprisingly so. Plus, with Donald “The Cheeto” Trump officially running in 2024 and Musk saying he could come back to the platform, it may be time to leave for good and start looking for Twitter alternatives.
However, you may feel like a lost baby deer in the woods. Fret not, we have a few Twitter alternatives you can consider moving to so you can avoid the trash heap the blue bird is becoming.
4 Twitter alternatives you can defect to
Tumblr
Tumblr has been around for a long time, and it’s surprising that it only has somewhat of a cult following. The microblogging site allows users to post a variety of things from text posts to videos, which sort of makes it Twitter on steroids. You can also follow other accounts as well as tags and “reblog” posts (their version of “retweet”). If you consider yourself a creative and like sharing your work whether its graphics, fanfics, or videos, Tumblr’s UI is easy to use and layout is perfect for all of it. Plus, you can also pimp out your blog like we used to do back in the MySpace days. And if you’re someone who doesn’t know MySpace, you’re too young to be reading this.
The fact that I do a column about a different subreddit every week makes it evident that I love the site. It’s a treasure trove of things, with “things” ranging from utterly mundane to dark and creepy. Reddit has had its fair share of controversies because of this, but as long as you stay on the good side and don’t venture into its murky and questionable depths, you should be fine. Plus, for those of you who remember the good ol’ message board days (again, if you don’t, you’re too young to be reading this), Reddit is its spiritual successor. Twitter users will like just how streamlined conversations can be and the similarity in following accounts. With Reddit, you can also follow specific subreddits so that you only see what interests you on your home page.
Mastodon
I was unaware of Mastodon until I started doing this story, and apparently, it’s been a popular choice for Twitter immigrants. The similarities between the two are unmistakable when you take a first glance at it, but Mastodon is definitely trying to do something different, the biggest difference being that it isn’t actually one single website. There are different servers, or “instances” as they call it, that users can join. This decentralised style means not just one entity runs one site and that the many different servers are run and managed by different people. Evidently, there are pros and cons to this. Retweets in Mastodon are referred to as “boosts” while tweets are called “toots”. That alone makes me want to sign up because I can finally say “Someone boosted my toot”.
Bluesky
This site hasn’t actually launched yet, though people can sign up for its private beta. But the reason it deserves a place on this list is because it’s being launched by Jack Dorsey, Twitter’s ex-CEO and the man they probably now wish had never left (cue Peabo Bryson’s If Ever You’re in My Arms Again). Bluesky is reportedly going to be decentralised and open-sourced, meaning everyone can play around with it and it won’t be handled by one single entity. Many people have said that it may be the “Twitter-killer”. Guess we’ll have to see.
Eric E. Surbano
Eric can be found lost in his own world jamming with headphones on while writing when he's not prepping for a DnD session or researching 'Star Wars' galactic history on Wookiepedia. A proud Ravenclaw, he loves playing (and writing about) video games, humming the 'Doctor Who' theme under his breath, and rewatching 'Friends', 'New Girl', and 'The West Wing'.
