The demise of social media

For a royalty watcher or journalist, social media, especially Twitter – nowadays X – were a source of information for many years. It was the place where you could find daily royal news from around the world, often even only a few minutes after something was announced. Nowadays, that’s a lot less and that’s actually an awful shame, because it has become much more difficult to get the latest royal news quickly. I’m not a big fan of Instagram, and Threads and BlueSky fall far short of the level of the old Twitter.

Now the social media war between fans of the Dukes of Sussex and Cambridge (now the princely couple of Wales) was the great low point in royalty watching. It was best to stay as far away from the warring factions as possible, as normal discussion was hardly possible. The takeover of Twitter by Elon Musk, who promptly turned it into X, was the next low point. Soon, many royalty watchers left the platform. Many familiar faces simply disappeared from sight or could be found elsewhere. I myself am still active, and for several reasons. There is still a small group of journalists and royalty watchers present, who generally post interesting things. Moreover, I have so far been unable to find a good group of royalty watchers on Threads and BlueSky, although many mainly British royalty journalists have partly switched.

After Mr Trump was elected the new US president in November 2024, another exodus of users from X followed. One of the reasons was Elon Musk’s open support for Trump, also financially. Although during US elections the support of celebrities for candidates is quite normal in the United States, I, and with me I think many, find this a strange phenomenon, just like the phenomenon, by the way, that there are basically only two political parties. And the fact that these celebs also pump considerable money into the election campaign is completely strange as far as I am concerned. Did users of X, not just from the United States, but from all over the world, contribute financially to the elections in this way?

I must therefore honestly admit, that in the past few weeks I too have thought about finally leaving X, but well, that would mean losing some interesting contacts. Besides, I find it incredibly convenient that I can send people personal messages there. Anyway, if X gets even worse and maybe even one day becomes only for paid customers, one thing is clear: I’ll be gone there too.

In case you still want to follow me: I can be found on all kinds of social media under the name NettyRoyal. I am on Facebook, BlueSky, Threads and Instagram (NettyRoyal and On Royal Tour). I am just not a very regular poster there (yet). I am interested in hearing your thoughts. And if anybody knows of a better place to follow the royalty news quicker than on these social media, just let me know.