The flouncing season seems to be in full swing on social media, with many users grandly announcing that they’re leaving Elon Musk’s X (formerly Twitter, if we still have to say that).

Like so much on social media, where flouncing season pretty much runs annually from New Year’s Day to New Year’s Eve, people are unable to just do something; they have to tell the world - or a handful of followers, at least - and try to make a virtue of it.

The trigger for the apparent X exodus has been Donald Trump’s victory in the US elections and Musk’s role as one of the president-elect’s more bizarre cheerleaders (which is some achievement in quite a crowded field). Many users simply couldn’t comprehend that a queasy diet of celebrity endorsements, identity politics soundbites and moral lectures wasn’t enough to defeat Trump, so their impotent rage took the form of boycotting Musk’s “toxic” platform (once they’d reacted suitably to the election).

Leading the flounce among media organisations in this country has been, naturally, The Guardian, citing concerns over “far-right conspiracy theories” on X and fears that Musk “has been able to use its influence to shape political discourse.”

The new playground for the flouncers is something called Bluesky, which looks and feels a bit like Twitter in the 2010s. Many believe this shift means left-wingers and right-wingers can now all play nice in their own little echo chambers; one having its worldview confirmed in a self-satisfied bubble on Bluesky, the other confined to a seething, mouth-frothing bubble on X.

But it’s probably not that simple. I suspect they will soon start to miss each other and the dubious art of the social media “pile-on”.

Despite what they claim, a great many people go onto such platforms not to be informed or to engage in constructive discussion but to argue and abuse people, often goading others into doing the same.

How dull for them all when everyone just agrees and parrots the same views. Give it a few months and I’m sure the culture war tribalists will be welcoming each other back with open arms - and carefully crafted insults.