Last year, Pew Research reported that most US Twitter users have spent less time on the platform since Elon Musk took over last year. Now, new data suggests that another significant group of users has also withdrawn from the service now called X.
More than half of scientific researchers who use Twitter report that they have reduced the amount of time they spend there or quit altogether, according to thousands of scientists who conducted the NATURE. And almost half of those surveyed said they turned to alternative social networks like Mastodon
Of the 9,200 researchers surveyed, more than 47 percent said they had reduced their use of the site, while nearly 7 percent reported quitting the site. Remarkably, almost the same number said they started an account on at least one new platform in the past year.
Of these, Mastodon, which has been seen since the announcement of Musk’s acquisition of Twitter, is the most widely used. About 47 percent of researchers said they started using an open-source platform in the past year. LinkedIn and Instagram are the next most popular, drawing 35 and 27 percent of researchers, respectively. Interestingly, Meta’s Twitter competitor, , took the number four spot even though the app was launched just a few days before. NATURE conducted the poll.
According to previous data from Pew, In nature The findings suggest that Twitter usage has decreased among those who were previously active on the platform. It also highlights how much the dynamic on Twitter has changed in the past year.
Twitter, say NATURE points out, has historically been an important platform for researchers and scientists. It is used to inform research and promote scientific debate. And Twitter researchers serve as an important source of information on a platform that has long struggled to combat misinformation. Twitter has also become an important source for countless researchers studying everything from public health to linguistics.
But much of this has now changed. Many users today feel that their voices are drowned in a platform that comes from those with paid verification. And the company created its API for researchers who would otherwise not be able to access it. So even not all researchers are talking NATURE ready to quit Twitter altogether, it seems the company’s tactics have alienated large parts of the scientific community.
X did not respond to a request for comment.
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