Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey is trying to shake up Twitter, but one new idea may be costly.
Amidst the plummeting price of Twitter’s stock and the departure of top-level executives, Twitter is losing ground to other social media sites, like Facebook and Instagram. Dorsey is bringing new ideas to keep Twitter from going stale, such as eliminating the 140-character limit on tweets. One of the newest, and most controversial, is the new timeline algorithm.
Here is how it works. Twitter currently has a reverse chronological timeline. This means when you look through your timeline, you will see what the people you follow tweet, in the order that they tweet them. Whether there is a breaking news story or two celebrities fighting, you will be able to follow along in real time. The new algorithm will sort your timeline based on predictions of what you want to read. It will look at what you retweet, favorite and tweet about. Based off of that, they will show the top-rated/most-relevant tweets of said topic. It is similar to the “Top Stories” feature that Facebook has adopted. According to BuzzFeed and Josh Sternberg of NBC, the new timeline will be opt-in.
Now the idea that you will possibly have access to only things you want to see sounds like a good idea. Also, the reverse chronological timeline may bury important information if you are not constantly on Twitter. The problem is that you may lose sight of followers that are not considered “relevant” by the algorithm. They may not be the most important thing that you want to see, but you followed them for a reason.
The reaction to this new change has been overwhelmingly negative. The backlash has inspired a hashtag, #RIPTwitter. Here’s how some people are reacting:
Leaked image of what Twitter will look like after the update. #RIPTwitter pic.twitter.com/EunR4tFY9e
— Tyrone Peiris (@TyronePeiris) February 6, 2016
I think the funniest thing about the whole #RIPTwitter thing is that Twitter seems surprised how fast outrage can be manufactured here
— byron ʕ·ᴥ·ʔ hulcher (@hypirlink) February 7, 2016
#RIPTwitter
Dear @jack, it's complicated so we'll try again
We want:
Edit button
We don't want:
Algo timeline
Hearts
A new window to reply
— Karin Richards (@Richards_Karin) February 7, 2016
Jack has taken the time to address the issue, directly addressing #RIPTwitter:
Hello Twitter! Regarding #RIPTwitter: I want you all to know we're always listening. We never planned to reorder timelines next week.
— Jack (@jack) February 6, 2016
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!
— Jack (@jack) February 6, 2016
However this plays out, Jack is on thin ice. His new tenure has put Twitter in jeopardy of losing a ton of users. Will he be able to save his company? We will see.
