Thread by @dragnetizen

Twitter history thread:

In my estimation, the best way to know what is happening on Twitter now is to see what happened in the past.

For example, let's look at 'Jennifer Myers.'

(Note that I don't expect many will see this thread as I don't have a network promoting me.) 🙃

[2] When we look through some of the tweets this account put out in 2016, we notice a peculiar pattern. Many of the tweets have roughly the same amount of retweets. A sampling is provided below.

[3] When we look closer to see who retweeted those tweets, we see that only 18 of the 398 retweeters still remain on the list.

Note that the retweet count stays as it was at its peak, even as accounts are deleted or suspended.

This figure tells us that 380 accts are now absent.

[4] There are numerous interesting things to note about those 18 remaining accounts.

For instance, all of them were created in December 2015 and all of them stopped tweeting/retweeting before the end of 2016.

[5] Moreover, if you look more closely at the screenshots in tweet #3, you'll note that these almost seem to be created using a template.

There's are blank entries where a Snapchat, Facebook, Instagram, or Vine can be added, to give the accts more authenticity, if desired.

[6] These seem to be default accts, which the operator or operators didn't bother to fill in completely.

The fact that these are just abandoned (at least for now) also is informative. Whomever created them can afford to just let them sit.

[7] Someone took the time to make them, yet they just leave them lying about so carelessly, as if they were mere Legos, waiting for someone to step on them.

If we look closer at 'Jennifer Myers, we see that this account is also abandoned. It operated until 2018, though.

[8] These accounts exemplify the typical arrangement found in such networks. You have 'Jennifer Myers,' who mainly tweeted. Then you have a series of other accounts, which amplify 'Jennifer Myers' and other accounts via RTs.

Occasionally these accounts will tweet, perhaps to -

[9] help something trend. But for the most part, they stick to retweeting.

On the surface, this all may seem rather benign. Scrolling through the various retweets of these accounts, it goes something like:

-A happy bunny
-free GIVEAWAY - click here ->
-art!
-YouTube!
then 👇👇

[10]

-free TRIP to the Bahamas!
-inspirational quotes
-kittens
-my first tweet!
-random!
-advertising
-article link
-a cute panda!
-then 👇👇

[10] Looks around, "Are we blending?"

[11] This is why I never trust a fart and I never take what I see on Twitter to be remotely related to reality.

It simply isn't.