Summer Marks Major Social Media Shake Up
This summer, social media platforms have made headlines for major changes—and Marist students have mixed responses.
This summer, several social media apps made major updates to their platforms. Credit: Julian Christ on Unsplash
From the debut of Meta’s Threads app to the Twitter-turned-X reveal, this past summer has been a significant one for social media. With several platforms undergoing changes, Marist College students have mixed reviews about the updates that have been made to their favorite sites.
The first to make headlines was Reddit, after revealing significant modifications to its business model. The app’s developers announced they would begin charging third-party apps to use their API interface, requiring companies like Google to pay to use the platform. This comes as many businesses plan to use Reddit chats to develop their own artificial intelligence programs.
The changes sparked major backlash from avid Reddit users who question the site’s priorities—over 7,000 subreddits on the site went dark in protest in June. “I think people are just getting sick of social media companies going super ultra-capitalist corporation mode,” said Raven Stanet ‘25. “They don’t want to put up with it anymore.”
But Reddit isn’t the only app that has caused controversy.
Perhaps the largest transformation was that Twitter, the popular mass messaging app, would now be known as X. In July, the platform’s owner, Elon Musk, debuted the new name only a few weeks following the launch of Mark Zuckerberg’s Threads — described by some as a cross between Twitter and Instagram.
As for X, the updated application keeps the same functionalities as Twitter, but in place of its former blue bird logo, it now displays a large white “X” with a black background.
Despite Musk’s optimistic goal of rebranding Twitter as an app that will “embody the imperfections in us all that make us unique,” the upgrade has since received a large amount of backlash from users. While the cage fight between Musk and Zuckerberg didn’t pan out, the Twitter design change did. In conjunction with Musk’s questionable reputation, many now prefer Threads to X.
“The symbol is just very modernized and gives off the idea that Musk wants everything to be one way, to be very bland. It’s just a very aggressive change, in my opinion, from the previous logo,” said Mia Priore ‘26.
On top of updates to individual social media sites, the use of artificial intelligence software has seen an increase this summer with the rise of easily accessible platforms, such as ChatGPT.
Recently, Snapchat made headlines when its AI chatbot, launched in April, appeared to post a live update to its online Story and briefly failed to respond to messages from users. Though the incident was reported as a system hack, the AI’s use of a feature typically reserved for humans has caused many to feel unsettled.
“I think this incident just kind of reinforces the idea that AI is so new to everyone. We really have to be careful how we use it and what we use it for,” said Emily Litke ‘26. “Snapchat is a mild example, but imagine if we start using it for something more serious.”
With future plans for social media up in the air, Marist students remain wary of the direction their favorite apps are headed towards. As a means of communication ever-growing in popularity, it is clear that platform updates will continue to make media headlines this year. But how many students will stick around for how they do is a question yet to be answered.
“I got rid of social media because it was just stressing me out. I don’t want to have a fear of missing out, but honestly, just being without it, you don’t have those distractions,” said Hannah Belleville ‘24. “I think a break is something everyone should try.”