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What's up with X?

I never liked Twitter. Thinking back, I found its structure to be redundant since I was already an active Facebook user who made posts that didn't have a character limit. While I'm not a Twitter user, I am someone who likes to stay on top of news, and once Twitter became X, I found that I only ever heard bad news about the company. So today I decided to sate my curiosity and answer the question: What's up with X?

The answer isn’t simple, and the articles I read paint a grim picture. The common thread between most news stories is that ever since Elon Musk took over, there’s been a steady decline in app downloads and active users. The platform has struggled with ad revenue and brand safety, and its inconsistent enforcement of content policies has made it a hotspot for hate speech and harmful misinformation.

Elon hasn’t taken this criticism lightly. In fact, he recently filed a defamation lawsuit against the Anti-Defamation League, claiming that their characterization of him as an anti-Semite has hurt X’s bottom line.

While there’s no shortage of coverage about X drama, what interested me most was this: Who’s actually using X these days, and how does that compare to platforms like Instagram, TikTok, or Threads? I did a bit of digging and used AI to help compile that information into a visual chart, which you can find below.



X is no longer the "town square" it once claimed to be. While it's still hanging on thanks to a core group of political commentators, power users, and niche communities, it's clear that casual users, younger audiences, and even advertisers are moving on. Platforms like TikTok and Discord are where communities are thriving now, while Threads is attempting to offer a calmer, more curated alternative. Whether X will rebound or continue to spiral remains to be seen, but this exercise reinforced the fact that the social media landscape is ever-shifting, and users are choosing platforms that reflect not just their interests, but their values.

Comments

  1. Content CreatorMay 27, 2025 at 6:23 PM

    This is a great graphic! It is interesting that the monetary kick back sites are big with everyone wanting to be a "creator" but X is big with folks who get paid to post already through their job descriptions. I do not have knowledge of the X platform from the business side of things but I know that Insta/FB has an abundance of data and resources available to the business brands to be able to tailor the message to the user/consumers who are interacting with the brand.

    ReplyDelete
  2. HBMay 30, 2025 at 11:59 AM

    I also love this graphic! It is really interesting to see the trends in social media usage. I am unfortunately an X user... I've been on the site since way back in the twitter days, and a lot of my friends from undergrad are pretty active posters. Of course, they aren't making money in the site or engaging in political hate speech -- they're mostly posting little jokes and tidbits from their life, and I haven't left the platform because I love keeping in touch with this group of friends. But ever since Elon bought it and Twitter became X, the platform has become increasingly un-usable... the algorithm pushes far-right content really hard, and I find myself feeling upset and irritated every time I open the app. It is probably time to delete it, and try and convince my friends move over to another platform, before X drives us all out of our minds!

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