I Spent One Week On Elon Musk's X

Before I begin, let me just preface this by saying, I am neither a Republican nor Democrat, nor Libertarian. I am simply an American citizen with a voice, a voice that needs to be heard.

Social media platform X has gone through a lot of different changes recently. This has some users very much frustrated as we start to unpack this whole concept of social media, which seems to be moving in another big direction as we speak. There is a larger push from platforms to deliver an "all in one" experience, perhaps to attract new users to platforms such as X and Meta, which brings me to another point: a lot of people seem to forget the Facebook to "Meta" shift that happened, which was definitely a very strategic move to help ensure continuing success of these platforms. I seem to recall how mad we've gotten about little changes to Facebook before, but then we eventually learned to live with them, they didn't seem as bad as we though, and we learned and continued to use the platform anyway. I feel a similar thing is happening on X, but in a more quick and swift manner, which has X users understandbly confused. That's why we have to try and understand why we are reacting like this.

The competitive nature and economy of the internet over the last decade has and is becoming a very lucrative business investment for many, from crypto currency to new forms of media and media interaction. People from all walks of life, young and old, have flocked to this environment. Those that have big dreams and ideas take those resources and opportunities and put them to good use. That's not being mean, that's just seeing things in terms of business, economy, and the basic principles of capitalism. With that being said, how can we judge a society that we built on those exact principles? Everyone has the opportunity to work hard and move up the ladder. There are things that may hold us back, things in society that make it more difficult, but we can still grow and achieve and succeed. Right here and now, this is OUR time.

Social media is moving in this direction whether we like it or not. Tiktok and many small businesses that people run through social media contribute to a lot of money made in this country now. I'm not exactly sure how much, but it is has become somewhat of a societal norm to see people working from home and running small businesses on Tiktok and Instagram, etc.

Instead of capitalizing on the advantages of this ever-growing culture of social media and internet, we've really been in this state of limbo for about 10-15 years. Things were moving forward slowly, but not quickly enough. Think back to the social media Facebook blowup that happened during COVID: that completely changed the way we look at and view social media and the internet, and that is precisely why we have started seeing more competition between the different platforms such as Youtube Shorts and Instagram Reels competing with Tiktok.

These differing opinions about the "philosophy" about social media has also caused an emergence of users flocking to newer and different platforms, such as Lemon8 and Bluesky. These multi-interactive platforms aim to provide users with a more well-rounded media experience, with the options to post pictures, write status updates, create pages, fundraisers, businesses, and so much, much more than just making a simple, short Tiktok video. With this change also comes another one, something I have been talking and writing about for the last year: the war on social media.

The war on social media isn't a real "war" in the sense that we know it. It's more like a time of realization where journalism and media as we know is taking a massive turn. In looking at my past experiences and what has led me to where I am today, I see now what I really want to do for humanity, and how I would really like to impact the world with that. A large part of that has been due to my own exploration and research of this platform as well as my recent take on the events shaping the world right now.

Let me give you a little bit of backstory about my education leading up to this point in my life: I attended Christopher Newport University from 2007-2012. I intially started as a journalism major, but changed my major after the first year after feeling continually lost and disconnected from my professors and classmates, all of whom which I felt were forcing me to see things in a certain way. There was little emphasis on questioning and reliability and fact checking sources, and much more of a focus on delivering a specific view and putting a particular spin on things.

I remember one day coming to class and we watched a whole documentary about the history of the printing press, and afterwards there was a very frank discussion about the impending collapse of print news media. At the time, most people thought online journalism was going to make print papers done for. What that ended up doing was pushing me out of the journalism track because I felt like with that and the lowering demand for jobs, that I wouldn't be able to do it, so I gave up and switched my major to English with concentrations in writing and Language Arts (6-12).

I attended CNU for one more year after getting my bachelors in 2011. I was accepted into a new program, an initiative that was being pushed at every public university at the time to get more people to go into the teaching field. The Master of Arts in Teaching program was a one year program that crammed 3-4 years worth of work into one year. It was long, daunting, and time consuming and I basically had no free time. After completing the program in 2012, I entered the workforce and obtained a position as a high school English teacher near my hometown.

I taught for a full nine years, and then COVID happened. I started becoming very frustrated, burnt out, and disheartened with the American education system, so I quit. I quit without anything really to fall back on, and I knew that. I didn't have a purpose or an idea and I just felt like giving up hope. For the last four years, I have felt as if I've been wandering around in life, not really knowing what I want to do or be or accomplish anymore. I had simply accepted becoming blissfully unaware of things and continuing my life as if none of this matters. Then, I started posting more on X.

In the last week, I don't know how many hours I've spent on X, probably a whole workday's worth for a couple of days. I researched, discussed and debated with others, I disagreed with others, but I was respectful. Sure, there were lots of people acting like babies and calling each other names, but that was not my experience. I will say, the trolling, parody accounts, and humor are a little wild on the platform, and can make you really question whether this is real life or if we are somehow living in some kind of propaganda machine. In the span of just one week, I have gone from concerned citizen, to maybe religious, to not religious again, to super supportive of the platform, and then back to being unsupportive. It has truly been a roller coaster of emotions for me. What I began to see very clearly then, was that it was not Elon Musk who was doing that. It was me.

I was taking this veil off of myself that prevented me from wanting to voice my opinion out of fear. I am a writer, but I haven't published a lot because I have always been terrified of criticism and rejection. The thing is, those very skills are things I need to have in order to be successful. Seeing and reading about Elon's actual story from other sources also told me a lot about who he is, what his mission in life really is, and how the places he lived and grew up impacted the way he views the world around him. This is a truth for anyone: your childhood upbringing and environment determines a lot about where you see yourself in the future and where you will go. This veil over me was a veil of complacency. We have become too complacent in this country. We have become way too comfortable with walking around and being blissfully unaware of what's right in front of us.

As someone who saw the events of 9/11 at a very young age (I was only 12), I can tell you that I am starting to understand the parallels between that time and where we are now as a society. I can see how and where things have snowballed like they have. To me, it's not any one person's fault, but rather a combination of factors, including, politics, education, scientific advancements, technology, etc. The world will move on without us whether we like it or not, but we have to be the ones to decide whether we stay or go. I'm choosing to stay, not because I necessarily agree with what anything anyone says there. I want to be there to write, to give people a personal account of how this crazy, messed up world is impacting me right now, and that's what I'm going to do.

For those of you who want some quick tips to help you on X:

1. Just like with any platform, make sure to take breaks. It can become overwhelming very quickly, and then often it starts to impact our mental health as well as the way we interpret things.

2. Don't believe everything you read, anywhere, and read from multiple different places, not just X. You are the one who ultimately can decide how you feel about things, so it is your responsibility to research and seek to understand.

3. You don't have to use social media if you don't want to. There's plenty of people around (not just older folks), who have completely stopped using social media altogether, citing that it has greatly improved their mental health. I know from experience taking breaks from social media definitely gave me the same feelings, so I try to take breaks when I can.

With all of that being said, I think X is a revolutionary app that will definitely change the way we look at social media and the news in the coming years. It's something so hard to wrap my mind around sometimes. While my experiences have been generally positive and I have had no over the top issues, I have been curious about many of the reports of users getting banned just for disagreeing with Elon. Firstly, I'd like to say that on this platform recently, I've been going back and forth between my like or dislike for Mr. Musk. Looking at this situation though, I have never been banend for not agreeing or for challenging anything that was said. Instead, this is an open forum to discuss where, yes, there are trolls, and people doing silly and stupid things, just like on any other social media platform.

So, what has this experience taught me? Well, it's taught me to listen to myself more, to consider things more, to be brave and fearless and speak my mind after years of being silenced, and for me, that's one of the greatest gifts. Now, I finally have the opportunity to pursue what I've always wanted to do, and this is my chance and yours to make a real impact, even if in a small way. I've just got to be a part of that. Overall, my experience with the platform has been positive, and while I always remain vigilant, I do not feel like I am in an unsafe environment. It feels more like a home, a place to listen to many different people about very many different things, and that, to me, is a wonderful thing.