Bye Bye Birdie

Okay, maybe I am getting flashbacks from the early 2000s’ release of Apple’s System X (pronounced “ten,” not “ex.” Branded with a big silver “X” on black (does that sound familiar?), System X excited all my super geeky friends (because, really, who doesn’t get excited about a new, radically designed operating system?) and terrified pretty much everyone else (because, IMHO, and I think for most of the rest of us, operating systems should been seen and not heard—or really even noticed). With its UNIX base and opaque system folder (called ominously “Library”), switching over to System 10 was a complete departure from older Mac operating systems. (And, yes, I do remember the previous kerfuffle around System 7.) As a freelancer going into multiple studios to work, I slowly watched as designers went over to the dark side and slowly adopted the new OS. It was a several year process. Eventually, OS X (along with its later iterations) and I have become, well, maybe not friends, but colleagues. It does its thing. I do mine. We coexist.

That was my first thought when I saw that Elon Musk having bought Twitter, and then tried his best to, IMHO, run it into the ground, decided to change its name (along with its cute little birdie logo) to “X”. I was not entirely surprised. Musk seems like a super smart guy. He codes. He builds cars. And rocket ships. However, I never looked at him and thought, “there is a guy who looks like he is extremely social and would love to share ideas and conversations with the rest of us.”

(Full disclosure, I pretty much avoid social media. I do not Facebook [no one really needs to know what I had for lunch], TikTok [or see my latest dance moves], Instagram [or see unlimited pictures of my cats—although that one could be up for debate]. I am on LinkedIn [because networking as a freelancer is a must] and NextDoor [because someone must keep an eye out for missing pets]. But that is it.)

And the bird was such a nice, cute logo. Happy. Tweeting. Doing cheerful, bird stuff. Sharing its song with the rest of us. Instantly recognizable. Even truly nasty tweets were somehow a little less nasty with that little blue bird up in the corner. But now that bird is gone. Replaced with “X.” Not nearly as friendly or inviting.

In the short term, I will probably need to figure out how to download the new “X” logo and replace it on pieces that have a line-up of social media icons. Also, note to self, I will need to find that new “Threads” logo from the folks at Meta (not nearly as cute as the bird, but a whole lot friendlier than “X”), because that one will probably need to be incorporated into those line-ups too.

In the long term, who knows? Because long-term in technology is never that long. Pivot for today. Let tomorrow take care of itself. I don’t need to love the “X.” We just need to coexist. And I can do that.