The Pew Research Center reported that since Elon Musk took over last year, most US Twitter users spent less time on the platform. Now new data shows that another significant group of users is also exiting the platform now known as X.
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Since Elon Musk bought Twitter last year and renamed it X, more than half of those who use Twitter have reduced the amount of time they spend on the platform or quit entirely, according to a survey of thousands of scientists by the journal Nature. . Nearly half of respondents said they turned to other social networks, such as Mastodon.
More than 47% of the 9,200 researchers surveyed said they had reduced their use of the site, while nearly 7% said they had quit the site entirely. Notably, nearly the same numbers show they opened accounts on at least one new platform last year.
Among them, Mastodon has grown significantly since Musk announced the acquisition of Twitter, with about 47% of researchers saying they started using the open-source platform in the last year. LinkedIn and Instagram were the second most popular sites, attracting 35% and 27% of researchers, respectively. Interestingly, Meta’s Twitter competitor, Threads, came in fourth, even though the app launched just days before the Nature poll.
Twitter has been an important platform for scientists to publicize research results and promote scientific discussions. Scientists on Twitter are also an authoritative source of information, which is very valuable for a platform that has long faced the problem of disinformation. Twitter is also a valuable source of data for countless researchers studying fields ranging from public health to linguistics.
But these have all changed now. Many users felt they were being overwhelmed on a platform that prioritized content from paid, authenticated users, and the company’s API, which was open to researchers, became too expensive to use for most people.
So while not all of the scientists interviewed by Nature were ready to ditch Twitter entirely, it appears the company’s tactics have alienated much of the scientific community.
