If there’s one social media app that I can yap about endlessly, it has to be X. Formerly known as Twitter, the app has been my social media app of choice for the last several years. So you can imagine that I had a whole lot to say when the ownership of the company crossed hands from Jack to Elon.
I’ve learned to live with a lot of the extremely odd changes that have been made to the app since Elon Musk took over, but I do find it sort of amusing that some of these “improvements” are annoying even him. For instance, the ability to format—bolden or italicize—text in posts.
Bold Text Across The X Timeline Is Now Being Disabled
Under Elon Musk’s time as the owner of X, which we all came to know when it was still called Twitter, there have been a lot of changes to the way that the platform works. Paid subscriptions are in so that everybody gets a checkmark (for some reason) and the traditional block feature seems to be out (effectively castrating most of the purpose of blocking on social media apps).
Another feature that Elon added to the platform was the ability to format text in your posts—likely a consequence of completely annihilating the concept of a “tweet” limit for those paying up for Twitter Blue. With longer posts, there’s more of a reason to introduce formatting, so I get it. However, the downside was that short posts could use formatting options too, and with that, people started to abuse the feature to farm engagements.
Due to immediate and excessive use of bold font on 𝕏, it will be removed from view in the main timeline.
You will have to click on post details to see anything in bold. My eyes are bleeding.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 1, 2024
I’m something of a Twitter purist, so I don’t feel the platform needs text formatting, posts that read as long as essays, or even monetization. However, all of these led to Elon himself complaining of how much he hates to see people needlessly using bold text on the timeline because his “eyes are bleeding”. As a result, he’s brought down his hammer of power and bold font will no longer show up on the timeline.
Bold Text Is Still There, But You Can Only See It On Expanded Posts
Elon’s team at X might have been the one to stick formatting options onto the platform in the first place, but he’s not hesitating to backtrack on it; sort of. While you won’t see formatted text on the timeline, you’ll be able to see all formatting that was applied the moment you expand the tweet.
That way, just like in the good old days, the actual content of the tweet is what inspires you to engage with it; not flashy text.
I Personally Don’t Think Twitter/X Is Any Better With Musk At The Wheel
I was never loyal to the leadership of Twitter but the platform itself, so I have never cared who is at the wheel. Unfortunately, I think that the platform, now X, isn’t doing any better than it was before.
The first sign that I wasn’t going to like the new side of things was the removal of the Circles feature. After that, monetization brought in a lot of attention seekers, misinformation, and comment sections filled with unrelated videos. Plus, the priority given to those willing to pay for the platform certainly makes scrolling through comments even more of a headache.
It’s not all hate. I’m a fan of the addition of the For You page, which I didn’t like at first. There have also been certain changes in the messaging side of the app, such as being able to reply to posts and send voice messages. However, overall, I’d hardly give this project a passing grade.
