Ever since its takeover by Elon Musk, Twitter has been mired in controversies that range from instability to potentially enabling hateful rhetoric. A new feature has just been rolled out, and though it looks fairly innocuous on the surface, it is making some commenters nervous. So let’s dive deep into the situation with Twitter Bookmarks, and why it is already causing controversy.
What is the New Twitter Bookmark Update?
As announced by the Twitter Support team, iOS users will now be able to see how many times a Tweet has been bookmarked. This number will appear below the Tweet, alongside Likes, Quotes and Retweets, theoretically as a means of emphasizing how significant or engaging it is.
The support team went on to assure users that their list of bookmarked Tweets will remain private, allowing people to continue using the feature without risk of their personal tastes becoming public knowledge.
What Are the Risks of the New Twitter Bookmark Update?
Again, this feature seems little more than a superfluous indicator of a Tweet’s popularity on the platform, no more telling than a Like or a Retweet.
What has since been pointed out by various users, however, is that Bookmarks are an indicator that someone would like to return to a particular Tweet. Though this is usually a good thing, such as an interesting topic of discussion or an ongoing thread that might have more content added to it later, some users perhaps use the function for less savory reasons.
As an example, if someone is posting a selfie, Likes are a nice way to show them that you think it is a nice photo. Retweets are perhaps somewhat more cryptic, but your sense of style is perhaps in line with what they want their timeline to represent. Should someone Bookmark your selfie Tweet, it is a declaration that they want to return to view this photo at a later time, and that is a somewhat disquieting thought.
In the same way that some platforms now hide the number of Likes or negative engagement content has received in order to protect its users’ mental health, this new statistic could be more intrusive than some would like; a number value on how many people want to keep your content within their personal collection.
Of lesser significance, some people just feel as though this is adding unnecessary clutter to what is already something of an information overload, and a waste of time and resources when Twitter has more pressing concerns that should be addressed first.
But what do you think? Do you think Twitter’s new Bookmark update is controversial? Or could you find this information useful in some way? Be sure to sound off in the comments below, and if Twitter is down at the moment, we’ve got a handy guide that shows you how to check the server status.
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