Twitter, now X, was once a useful site for breaking news. The Baltimore bridge collapse shows those days are long gone.

Twitter, now X, was once a useful site for breaking news. The Baltimore bridge collapse shows those days are long gone.

  • Minotaur@lemm.eeEnglish
    0·
    6 months ago

    It’s actually crazy how low the percentage of people under like… forty is now that actually gets their news direct from a news site. Seriously, i don’t know a single person from like 20-35 who actually just goes on the NPR or C-SPAN app or whatever.

    It kind of sucks. So much news is just reading the headline and seeing a photo now. And I just feel like there’s something bad about being able to see a comment section on Twitter or Reddit or even Lemmy now on every news event. Makes for a lot more group think rather than just reading the news and going “huh”

      • Thorny_Insight@lemm.eeEnglish
        0·
        6 months ago

        Lemmy is massively biased though. While that doesn’t mean the articles aren’t factual, you’re still only ever hearing one side of the story. What I find time after time is that majority of people who have strong opinions about current events are completely uncapable of fairly steelmanning the opposing side’s argument.

  • eldrichhydralisk@piefed.socialEnglish
    0·
    6 months ago

    The only reason I had a Twitter account was because there was an emergency event in my local area and Twitter was the one place I could get information about it *right now*. There were locals sharing what they knew, emergency services telling people what measures needed to be taken where, and journalists on the ground saying what they knew in real time. It was invaluable.

    When I left Twitter, that ability to follow breaking news as it happens was the thing I was afraid I’d miss out on most. It’s bittersweet to find out that I didn’t need to worry about that after all.