It’s time we broke up. I’m leaving you; I am going to close my account. And it makes me sad, when I think of all the good times we have had.

Remember back when we first started, 14 years ago? I was 37-years-old, I didn’t have children yet, my business was in its infancy and life was quite different.

I would post five to 10 times a day at the height of engagement. I would share and engage with agenda setting topics, issues, and events. But I mostly loved the connections I made with people that were genuinely just as enthusiastic as I was. In the early days we would have ‘Tweet Ups’ where we would meet at a café in person – we were like a ‘flash mob’ of 30-50 people.

Can you imagine feeling safe enough to do that now with a group of 30 strangers from X? I don’t think so.

Back then, friendships and business transactions were made, but more importantly we really embraced the ‘social’ aspect of what we then knew as Twitter. And you were the only place where I could also announce milestones in my personal life and in my business.

As a media professional you have for the last decade been the perfect platform for me, and losing the digital footprint that we have created together isn’t easy. You’ve been a place to engage different opinions, develop ideas, to amplify messages. Where robust conversations were had with vigour, passion and in many cases with humour.

And while I could take the easy, Seinfeld, way out and say, ‘it’s not you, it’s me’, the truth is: you are not that same platform you used to be anymore.

You changed when Elon Musk took over. The ‘keyboard warriors’ found strength in their anonymity and delivered waves of misinformation, hate and fear.

The more people I blocked, unfollowed, or just tried to stay away from it seems the platform found unusual ways to help these people’s content find me.

The commercialisation of Twitter has nothing to do with our parting ways. I completely understand and do not blame Elon looking to make money from it. But that didn’t need to be at the expense of your credibility, the trust and the brand.

I’m not looking for an echo chamber or a silo of my own views and opinions to bounce off but, I am most certainly not looking for the putrid hate and misinformation that your platform has become.

The Medianet 2024 Media Landscape Report backs my thoughts. It found that many media and journalists have also turned their backs on X as a source of stories, ideas, content and experts. It’s sad to think that what was an amazing resource for journalists and was actually designed for them has now become redundant.

We had a had a good run, but now it’s time for me to go.

Goodbye X