I deactivated Hawkworld Twitter today. This was not a choice I made easily. It was not a knee-jerk reaction to something. I agonized over this for the past year since Elon Musk took over. I thought at first that he would dissemble it and then make it something new and maybe even better, but I was kidding myself. It just kept getting worse and I realize now that the site will probably not return to what it once was. It was never perfect, of course, but it has fallen into a state of hate, insults, trolling, false news, bots, and miserable people who basically are just there to make everyone else as miserable as they are. I am against racism, white supremacy, anti-semitism, anti-gay, anti-democracy, anti-Muslim, anti-Christian, and other things, but Twitter/X is now nothing but a site on hate steroids. It's been a long time since I came away from the site feeling good about something. I came to loathe the site.
But I didn't want to lose it or give it up. Hawkworld had over 7400 followers when Musk took over and it was steadily heading to 10k. There was a time when it was my favorite social media site. I spent hours building the account up, sharing pictures, information, and news about Hawkman and Hawkworld in general. I have met some of the most amazing people there. There were fans much more passionate than me, and I learned a lot from them. Over 100 comic writers, artists, and editors graciously followed Hawkworld and shared their insights and creations with us. Hawkfans and comics fans from all over the world came together on Twitter and shared our love for the characters together. When Robert Venditti's Hawkman series started, I started doing a comic book giveaway contest each month. I ended up giving away over 70 issues and sent them to countries like Spain, Argentina, Canada, Scotland, England, Brazil, the Philippines, Mexico, and other places. I was able to meet Venditti through Twitter and shared some things while the series was going on. I spent hours making threads of Hawkman information to share something really cool and exciting about the Hawks. It was great getting some awesome feedback and even more questions or discussions that came from the threads. It was fun.
I think deep down I knew the end was coming when Musk destroyed the verification process. It really fell apart from there. There was now no way of knowing if the poster was real, knowledgeable, or believable. It was now an SNS version of Bartertown, where chaos and hate ruled, and so many were there just to watch it all burn down. It was time to leave.
If this post reaches the amazing people who were following Hawkworld Twitter, I just want to say thank you. Thanks for following an account about a character that DC seems to have no use in using lately, made by some nobody who lives on the other side of the planet. You guys and gals are awesome and I hope nothing but the best for you. I hope we can still run into each other on the other Hawkworld sites and keep the Hawks soaring together.
I thought I would feel terrible when I deactivated the account, but I actually feel pretty good about it. There comes a time when a person has to make a stand for what's right. That time is different for everybody, but the time came for me to say that enough was enough and I could no longer use the site with a clear conscious. If you're still okay with the site, and it does still have a lot of good points, then that's fine. That's your choice and I hope it gets better over there. Although I think that is a very small possibility at this point.
If you want to find Hawkworld, I am currently posting regularly on Facebook, Instagram, and Threads. The same thing could happen to Meta someday, but while it's not perfect, it's still a whole lot better than what's going on on Twitter at the moment. I'm also on Bluesky but not as often. We'll see how that goes.
So goodbye, Twitter, it was fun while it lasted, but all good things must come to an end and give way to something better. Hawkworld will continue to soar in other skies.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Feel free to comment!