In a surprising move, Twitter has undergone a major rebranding and is now officially known as X. Elon Musk made the announcement over the weekend, stating that it was time for users to bid farewell to the Twitter brand and its iconic blue bird logo. The letter X seems to hold a special significance for Musk, who has previously used it for companies like Tesla X and SpaceX, and even named one of his children X Æ A-Xii. Linda Yaccarino, CEO of the social media app, described the rebranding as an exceptionally rare thing and an opportunity to make another big impression. Musk had hinted at the idea of X becoming an everything app after he acquired Twitter last year for a whopping $44 billion.
X Marks a New Era
The new X logo, designed by user @ajtourville, draws inspiration from the Art Deco movement, chosen from various logo designs submitted by Musk’s followers. The logo features a thick white X glitching over the old blue Twitter bird. The X.com website now redirects to twitter.com, signaling the completion of the rebranding process. Many users have expressed disappointment, and at the time of Musk’s takeover, it was estimated that up to 32 million users would leave the app, with many migrating to Meta’s Threads.
Twitter’s Transformation
Musk has received criticism for some changes implemented on the social media platform, including alterations to the verification system, limiting the number of tweets a user can view daily, and introducing a subscription service. Despite the negative feedback, Musk seems to embrace it, claiming it’s preferable to censorship. As part of the rebranding, the act of posting a tweet will now be referred to as posting “an X.” With the rebranding complete, the world awaits to see how X will redefine the social media landscape and what new features and experiences it will bring to its vast user base.
This New Video Game Is Inspired by the Poetry of Emily Dickinson
Emily Dickinson created nearly 1800 poems during her lifetime but could publish only ten. She certainly tried to publish more by writing to an Atlantic Monthly writer asking if her verse was alive. 136 years after her death, Emily Dickinson is one of the most celebrated poets in America, with her verse very much alive in pop culture, being used for song lyrics, band names, television series titles, etc. Now, there’s an interesting latest addition to the line of Dickinson-inspired modern creations. Behold the EmilyBlaster!
The EmilyBlaster
EmilyBlaster is a 1980s-style free video game based on the poems of Emily Dickinson. A poem appears on screen before starting each gameplay, and the players have to shoot down words from the sky. The game cycles between Dickinson’s poems like “I Felt a Funeral in My Brain,” “Because I Could not Stop for Death,” “That Love is All There is,” and many others. The objective of the game is to shoot the words in the correct order to assemble the selected poem.
The Inspiration
EmilyBlaster is inspired by a fictional game from the upcoming novel Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin. The book tells the story of two childhood friends who create video games together after reconnecting in later life. Sadie, one of the friends, creates the EmilyBlaster, based on the poetry of Emily Dickinson. According to the author, the memorable phrasings and compact verse of Dickinson make for perfect targets to shoot!
The Video Game
As per the novel, in EmilyBlaster, poetic fragments fall from the top and track along the bottom of the screen. During the gaming process, the player has to shoot the poem fragments using an ink-shooting quill, to add up to one of the poems by Emily Dickinson. If successful in the game, the fictional player earns and collects points to decorate a room in Dickinson’s Amherst house.