One of the things that will be very difficult to replicate is the ability for Twitter to function as the town square for breaking news from the masses specifica

One of the things that will be very difficult to replicate is the ability for Twitter to function as the town square for breaking news from the masses specifically. One single platform, incentivizing non-writers to communicate single-sentence live updates (and commentary based on their lived experiences) on events unfolding in real time, providing on-the-ground information to remote reporters in quote-ready formats, democratizing journalism in a way that hadn't been truly possible before. Substack's inherent lean towards only those creators able and willing to write long-form content won't capture the same dynamics, and that's a shame. Of course, Twitter's way of "incentivizing non-writers" meant showing people's engagement, which meant replies, which meant toxicity and bullying. Letting people release their pain, fear, and trauma at each other, 140 characters at a time, was always going to be a double-edged sword: surfacing truths that never would have otherwise seen the light, but also allowing disinformation and hate to propagate. I'm truly not sure whether Twitter will be seen as a net positive to societal progress by future generations - or whether we should want to replace its role wholesale. But either way, there's definitely good parts that many will miss, and however/whether or not it deserved to die, it didn't deserve to die like this.