It’s been rowdy on Twitter since the Elon Musk takeover, and the hype is only growing. Yet this is not how the platform ever started, Martijn van Es and Marc de Vries know this. They were among the first to get involved in the medium.
He was the third Dutchman to be on Twitter, Martijn van Es (46). As a ‘Twitter fossil’, as he calls himself, he knows how the medium has changed over the past 16 years. “Initially it was on a very small scale. And therefore much friendlier. It’s a shame things have changed,” he says.
“Almost Nothing Happened”
Van Es remembers it well, the early days of social media. “In the first year, the number of Dutch people on Twitter was counted on both hands. Almost nothing happened.”
“Most of the medium’s Dutch knew each other a little bit,” recalls Van Es. “It was all on a very small scale.”
Bigger and less pleasant
About two years later, he noticed that more and more people were coming to Twitter. The medium has grown and become increasingly mainstream, she says. “The moment your dad is on Twitter, and I was in my 20s at the time, then you know he really got known.”
And that didn’t have the best consequences for the atmosphere on the medium, explains Van Es. “What you saw is that as the success grew, it also became less enjoyable.” Van Es talks mainly about hate reactions, which he has seen more and more in recent years. “It’s changed dramatically in the last 2 or 3 years. You’ve seen it before, but then it was still doable by blocking people.”
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“It will be like the company”
Marc de Vries, also a Twitter user from the beginning, has seen this happening up close on different social media. He is the former director of Hyves and later became regional director of Twitter Benelux. “If a platform is small, it’s hype. Everyone tries it and you hear only good things.”
“Until it becomes bigger and more mainstream. Such a social network then becomes just like society. And in society there are also people who are not only positive and happy. Then human behavior comes into play.”
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Interact with your network
For a social media outlet, this isn’t all bad. For example, De Vries noted that social media has an important network effect: “In the Netherlands, Hyves was the first introduction to social media. It was new to everyone and people would add anyone they knew even a little to their net”.
He saw that people eventually came to a certain realization and asked themselves: Do I really want this? “There was so much being shared about Hyves and no one was aware that everything is also visible to everyone and stays on the internet forever. That has changed, because now people are sharing less.”
Post what you are eating
Van Es acknowledges this shift. “Twitter was created as a kind of SMS service, with which you could give short status updates. What are you doing now? Where are you now? So that friends and acquaintances can stay informed. Really more out of curiosity.”
“But there were also major news stories at one point that made people respond,” says Van Es. “Initially, you couldn’t reply to each other on Twitter. of transmission”.
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‘it wasn’t meant that way’
But the growth of the medium has brought about changes, and not just positive ones. “There were a huge number of annoying types on Twitter, and the situation has only worsened since the corona pandemic.” People with lots of followers and women who are especially vocal are having a tough time, says Van Es.
“They can hear some really bad stuff. And then I think, yeah, guys, it wasn’t meant that way. Sometimes it goes too fast. That’s social media, and social is just missing. If you’re from a period it comes where you personally know almost everyone who’s on the medium and still remember what it was like, that’s a real shame. The world there is just not good.”
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Twitter has been a cesspool for years
Over the years, each platform has been given a stamp, notes De Vries. “Facebook is notorious for big scandals you can’t get rid of, Hyves suddenly went out of fashion within a year, and Twitter was a cesspool for years.”
Yet as a former Twitter regional manager and concerned user, he still sees the added value of the medium when used properly. “If such a platform gets bigger, it poses dangers. At Hyves, for example, I saw that the algorithms ensure that it is determined what you can and even have to see.
‘Unfiltered and most up-to-date’
On Twitter, you can still see tweets from everyone you follow in chronological order. “Twitter has always had a clear positioning of freedom of word“says De Vries. “That makes it unfiltered and more up-to-date.”
Van Es also sorts his timeline this unfiltered way, but he thinks it’s not easy. “A lot of people don’t and then you see that what causes more interaction and more response gets more attention. So it gets in the eyes of even more people, gets more attention and seems important. fun.”
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A large market square
For Van Es, this is the biggest change Twitter has undergone in recent years. “From a place where you meet friends, it has become a public market square. But you see we also pay a huge price for that huge opening, that huge square.”
However, not only changes but also trends can be identified, notes De Vries. “Someone stopping using social media is something of all time. You saw it in Hyves 15 years ago: people who made a statement and stopped.”
“Don’t Destroy Twitter”
The two themselves can still be found on Twitter for the time being. “I certainly think it will continue to exist,” says De Vries. “Just like the internet, that’s not possible anymore. Social media is the digital way to maintain a network. People are social animals and they want to know what it’s like from each other.”
De Vries doesn’t think Twitter can be destroyed quickly. “But I see worrying developments. Like Elon Musk actually determining for himself what it will be like and which employees will stay and which won’t. Half of the company is gone and I hope he will fill the privacy posts soon.”
Cure
Van Es is also worried about the medium. “I’ll stay online for now, but I’m not entirely convinced. You can see that the website is technically falling apart. And no matter how well you keep your garden clean by blocking people out or making sure you only see certain things, it won’t be easy for you.”
