Last Updated on February 24, 2023
I saw an interesting popup when I browsed Twitter earlier today to tell me all about ‘Twitter Tips’. But it turns out this isn’t exactly new.
It almost struck me as a strange coincidence. Almost. When I received a popup about Twitter Tips, I might once have marveled that such a notice would pop up within 24 hours of writing about another social media platform offering a tipping option.
That article focused on the platform Post, which allows users to tip in Post Points. They’re a gesture meant to show appreciation. But it’s really more in the form of token appreciation, since Post Points have a value of a penny each.
But these days, we know that the web is watching where we go. So it didn’t surprise me to see another social platform suddenly show me a popup about how to use its tipping option.
One thing, however, did surprise me.
When I did a little bit of research to determine when the Twitter Tips program began, I found an article dated September of 2021. So, I guess I missed that memo.
I’ve only just noticed the first instance of the little tip icon, which appears at the top of someone’s profile right below their cover image. It looks like an emoji of a bundle of bills.
Twitter calls its tips “an easy way to support the incredible voices that make up the conversation on Twitter.” It says they help you “get paid for being you” and “let your fans show their support.” Tipsters can use cash or Bitcoin. To activate your tip option, you have to edit your profile from your smartphone. There’s no way to activate it from the desktop version of Twitter.
Once you set up Twitter Tips, you can tip anyone who has enabled the option on their profile. If they don’t activate it, you can’t tip them.
When you click it, you can specify an amount you wish to tip, assuming you’ve added a payment option on your account.
While Post doesn’t put a limit on how much you can tip, a one cent per Post Point, they aren’t designed to make people rich. Twitter claims there’s no limit on what you can tip — at least not one that they set. Third-party payment options that Twitter Tips rely on — services like CashApp and Venmo — may have limits of their own, but Twitter says it doesn’t see a dime of that tip money.
Is tipping a good thing for social media?
I’m not sure about that. The more I think of it, I wonder if money might corrupt social media posting the way it tends to corrupt anything else.
Over on Post, if someone sends you a point, it feels like a pat on the back, especially since that point is only worth a penny.
But somehow, when the tip is “wide open,” something seems a bit off to me. How profound of a tweet must I post to get a penny and how much more profound must it be to rake in a buck? What’s the limit? Where does it end?
And for the more divisive among us, what kind of impact could greed have on posts that become increasingly outlandish to capitalize on a tipper’s affection?
Maybe it hasn’t been a problem at all so far. (That might be why I never even noticed the option.) But maybe there are a lot of us who didn’t know it was there, yet. The potential problems may be only about to begin.
Let’s hope not.
