There's a meltdown happening on Twitter over a Buzzfeed report that Twitter may switch soon to an "algorithmic" method of displaying tweets by relevance, instead of the current way of showing them in reverse-chronological order, like a backwards timeline.
In other words, Twitter is thinking of becoming more like Facebook, which guesses what users will be interested in and shows those posts first. People can always switch back to a straight timeline on Facebook, but the setting isn't easy to find.
Twitter hasn't commented on the report. We don't know if it's true. We don't know if the switch will be mandatory or if people will be able to choose.
Nonetheless, some of the reactions were amusingly over the top. A hash tag, #RIPtwitter, was even created to talk about the rumor:
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https://twitter.com/mims/statuses/695807236375998466
My reaction to @Twitter’s upcoming agorithmic timeline: #RIPtwitter pic.twitter.com/xezNyt8n4d
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https://twitter.com/mims/statuses/695874060048166912
One of the great rewards of being an adult is deciding ON YOUR OWN who (and what) you should be interested in. #RIPTwitter
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https://twitter.com/mims/statuses/695974905393913857
People like Twitter because its not Facebook, now they're making it more like Facebook #RIPTwitter pic.twitter.com/EJ6RftxYP3
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https://twitter.com/mims/statuses/695973597584748544
Waking up to #RIPTwitter tweets pic.twitter.com/8P9i1LLmYs
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https://twitter.com/mims/statuses/695972368817201152
Leaked image of what Twitter will look like after the update. #RIPTwitter pic.twitter.com/AUoKoMwJkR
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https://twitter.com/mims/statuses/695963963322994688
me trying to find a new social media site while twitter destroys itself #RIPTwitter pic.twitter.com/xh3Tlt4RZG
This proves a few things.
First, people on Twitter like nothing more than complaining about Twitter on Twitter.
Second, people hate change.
For journalists and hardcore Twitter users — who are few — the reverse-chronological timeline is essential, as it's the only way to navigate the stream of real-time information provided by the people and publications they follow. (Journalists particularly like it because it lets them see breaking news super fast and also gives them a record of who was "first" on a story, which is a point of pride that the rest of the world could not possibly care less about.)
The fact is, Twitter needs to increase engagement. It hasn't been adding significant numbers of new users for over a year now and has stalled out around 300 million monthly users.
Showing people the information they're most likely to be interested in, rather than every meaningless tweetstorm and inside-y argument in precise reverse order, might actually make the service more interesting and approachable for the billions who don't use Twitter at all.
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