I have so far written two posts dealing with that contemporary Internet phenomenon, Twitter. Although I have previously referred to the site as tw*tter. Links to both of those posts will be found at the end of this one, they are: ‘What’s all the fuss over Twatter?’ and ‘Do ‘birds’ flock on Twitter?’
Like many today, I am puzzled by the behaviour of the present owner, Elon Musk. I know very little about him of course and I have difficulty understanding the strong objections people have towards him. I have never met him and I am unlikely to. Nor have I met anyone who has and once again, I am unlikely to.
I cannot comment on his political views. I do not pay enough attention to his activities, to know what they actually are. I have not read anything that would concern me but that is because, I have not read anything directly attributable to him. He is something of a mystery to me. Yet I am aware that to some, he is the modern day minister of propaganda. People do it appears to me, regard him as arrogant and obnoxious. Whether this opinion has been made with any justification, I cannot say.
Recently this man has decided, for reasons possibly only understood by himself, to rebrand Tw*tter. This came into effect on the 25th of July 2023. Perhaps in the business world of the USA this makes sense. To us here on the European side of the Atlantic, it all seems quite ridiculous.
I am sure most people reading this we be aware of the development. Tw*tter is now X and we are no longer to send tweets. We send Xts. Which seems unpronounceable but I postulate that we should pronounce it as Zits. Now I don’t know about the rest of you but I am not enamoured by the prospect of sending anyone a Zit. I shall carry on calling the sight Tw*tter and I shall carry on sending tweets. Indeed from now on in my vocabulary, the site is TwXtter. I am replacing the asterisk I used to insert with an X.
To many the act of rebranding a well-known and easily searchable website, as something unknown, unsearchable and quite unpronounceable, is a very foolhardy act. It would be akin to Mark Zuckerberg rebranding Facebook as Metabook, to conform with the parent company. It would mean the destruction of a brand but that appears to be what Elon Musk is unwittingly doing. Why? Is he a fan of the X Files perhaps?
Until the change came into force, I had no idea that Elon Musk’s parent company was called X. I had until that point never heard of it and that does suggest that the change has helped with the required publicity. I had no idea that Space-X was so called because of this parent company. I wrongly assumed it was named such because it sounded futuristic and straight out of science fiction. I was not at that time interested in the activities of Mr Musk and Space-X, enough to even bother researching this fact. I am not now but it has proved impossible to avoid news of his activities recently.
Despite the fact that I am now aware of his parent company, I remain still quite bemused by the change. As outlined above, the destruction of an established business and its world famous trademark, seems to be the path of self-ruination. It has certainly led to the creation of some of the most amusing memes I have ever seen. Mr Elon Musk is a remarkably entertaining man and is sometimes funnier than Mark Zuckerberg, although never intentionally.
I am informed that Mr Musk considers himself to be a self-made billionaire, which is itself somewhat amusing. He was left several million by his parents and therefore, was already halfway up the ladder of success when he began his business ventures. This remarkable lack of insight does in some way, explain his peculiar behaviour and perhaps his equally peculiar posts on TwXtter. Like a certain former President of the United States, his posts are sometimes nonsensical and even seemingly irrelevant. I am still puzzled as to why he changed the TwXtter logo to a corgi earlier this year but that is just one example of his eccentricity. Perhaps he is a Royalist? It was the Jubilee year after all.
I have had my own experience regarding the possibility of rebranding, although I am in no way famous myself. My own experience and views can be found below in the post: ‘A matter of branding.’ I will however, give a brief résumé of the matter.
I have for some years now written under the pseudonym the Chattering Magpie and I have had the pleasure of seeing that name in print many times. As time and my career progressed, I began to write for an increasing number of serious and prestigious periodicals. This necessitated a more solid and professional approach to my literary career. My use of the nom-de-plume Chattering Magpie, became inappropriate and I seriously considered ceasing to use it altogether. I discovered however, that the name for good or ill, will forever be associated with me. I therefore took advice from family and friends, eventually settling on the compromise of Daniel Bran Griffith the Chattering Magpie.
Now if I, a nobody living in a council house in central England, relatively unknown but equally known well enough to use a brand name, can find myself in this position. Then surely someone as famous and as influential as Elon Musk, must face a very similar conundrum? I maintain that the ‘ditching’ of the bluebird is a error of judgement on his part but as has been pointed out to me once again, Mr Musk is not known for his sound judgement.
In my earlier post ‘What’s all the fuss over Twatter? – I suggested that Mr Musk will potentially sell TwXtter for profit. That is after keeping it in circulation for a few years. Circumstance requires that I now modify my view on this future event. His activities and constant micro-management has I believe, led to a remarkable devaluation of the company. It has been suggested that if he was wishing to sell and could find a buyer, he would now sell at a loss. It appears that he has killed the goose or more appropriately the bluebird, that he hoped would lay a golden egg.
Daniel Bran Griffith - The Chattering Magpie 
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