Lawrence High is one of many schools across the country that uses Twitter, or now “X” as a primary means of communication. From sports to breaking news, the app has been one of the most efficient methods of student outreach for years.
“As far as the athletic side of things, it’s a great way to communicate with many layers of people,” assistant principal and athletic director Mike Gillman said. “I can get information out, but also keep up to date scores at games.”
Twitter is also recreationally popular among students.
“I usually just go on there to check if my friends have written anything funny, and if I have a joke that I think is funny, I’ll usually write it out and put it in a tweet. Just for fun,” junior Rose Allgeier said. “Twitter is a good place if you want to find just purely stupid funny things.”
On July 5, Meta’s Threads emerged as a rival to Twitter, bearing a near identical interface, with an automatic connection to any other Meta account. This means no new login is required if the user has an existing Instagram, which most students already have.
The draw of this new platform is not only the simple application process, but the counter-Twitter perks that have become increasingly appealing under Elon Musk’s management.
Musk initially shared ambitions to expand X into an all-encompassing communication service, but since purchasing the platform in October 2022, a series of controversial developments, along with a variety of trivial tweaks to the app’s interface, have pushed users to turn to Instagram’s Threads.
Some are already incorporating the alternative platform, with the possibility of a complete transition hanging in the air.
Jeff Dickson, CTE teacher and basketball coach, has already made a Threads account for both personal and professional use, saying that Musk’s adjustments to the app have made it a much less desirable platform.
“What Twitter has going for it is it’s been around for a long time and become the normal way for sharing info and communicating in social media. Myspace, Netscape, Napster, AOL and so many others have gone by the wayside,” Dickson said. “It would be nice to see Twitter back in the hands of someone who was stable, moral and decent.”
Others aren’t sure what to think of Threads just yet.
“I probably wouldn’t switch to Threads just because I feel like I don’t use Twitter enough to have that necessity,” Allgeier said.
Even Brendan Symons, self-proclaimed Twitter addict, felt that Musk’s changes to Twitter weren’t worth switching to Threads.
“I just kind of ignore all of that,” Symons said, “It’s like, which billionaire do I want to go with?”
