#RIPTwitter: The end of an era?

The end of an era for twitter? News that social media platform twitter is switching to algorithmically sorted tweets as early as next week, has thrown twittersphere into a tizzy. By using an algorithm to determine the tweets people see, twitter could show users only the most popular content from people they follow, or what it thinks a user might find interesting. Many tweeps compared this formula to Facebook’s timelines, and protested changing twitter’s real-time, live conversation feed. Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey responded to the outcry in a series of tweets, saying: “Regarding #RIPTwitter: I want you all to know we’re always listening. We never planned to reorder timelines next week. Twitter is live. Twitter is real-time. Twitter is about who & what you follow. And Twitter is here to stay! By becoming more Twitter-y. I *love* real-time. We love the live stream. It’s us. And we’re going to continue to refine it to make Twitter feel more, not less, live!” However, not everyone was convinced. Here’s what they said.

@Thirtyguitars: “Good thing #RIPTwitter was either successful or based on bad rumours. If algorithm happened, I would have been like...”

@flaminkait: “If twitter actually changes the timelines to most relevant instead of most recent, then i’m done with twitter. #RIPTwitter”

@mor1019chacha: “Dear Twitter, I wanna decide who I follow, what I read. I don’t need algorithms to decide that for me. All I wanted is an edit button. #RIPTwitter”

@PoliticalPetard: “The whole point of @twitter is that you see tweets in real time. Removing that removes basically the entire point of Twitter. #RIPTwitter”

@MotherJocker: “When Twitter decides to view Tweets by Popularity. #RIPTwitter”

@Alkie_Ben_Holic: “Yep, we’ve officially gone there! #RIPTwitter #YouTwitFace”

‏@Originalnarnia: “Things no @twitter user wants: -Unordered timeline -Moments feature -More than 140 characters. Things we do want: -Edit button. #RIPTwitter”

@RlPTWlTTER: “New logo leaked #RIPTwitter”

@HeidiL_RN: “#RIPTwitter give us real time or give us death.”

@HillyHindi: “I’m jumping on board with this #RIPTwitter hashtag. We don’t want:

- Unordered Timelines

- More than 140 Characters

- Another Facebook”