I deactivated Twitter a couple of days ago. There was no specific reason. I just took stock of my life and came to the conclusion that Twitter’s inherent drawbacks outweigh its benefits.
How many times do I need to be reminded Twitter is poison?
Twitter is a cesspool
Twitter has become a joke. It’s a place where people go to show how woke they are. What’s even worse are the people who use Twitter to target those they deem to be less woke than them. It’s become ground zero for cancel culture.
I’ve tried to do this before. After a couple of days, I log back into Twitter and reactivate my account. My hope is that this time is different. Quitting Twitter is a lot like quitting smoking. It rarely sticks the first time you attempt it. If I’m able to go 30 days without logging into Twitter, my account will be deleted. This is what I’m shooting for.
Now that I have deactivated Twitter, what’s next?
Instead of Twitter, I will be using Instagram more. I never get that terrible empty, soul-sucking feeling I get using Twitter when using Instagram. If you would like to follow me on Instagram, by account is rick_rottman. If you follow me, I will follow you back.
Update
In a move that should shock no one, I reactivated my Twitter account. I’m a weak man who lacks discipline. I felt like I was missing out on news and other information.
I deactivated all my social media accounts about five years ago. I haven’t looked back since! I think our society finds it easy to trash talk people on the web because they don’t have to look them in the face. On a lighter note, check this out …. https://www.thefarside.com/
Twitter is just unhealthy. It just keeps on getting worse.
Thanks for The Far Side link. 🙂
Twitter was not always a garbage platform. I remember when I first logged in to twitter when the platform was first started. It was a “smarter” platform. I say so because this was pre-meme and people had to think in order to express themselves. It was a great place to see how clever people could be with a limited number of characters to express their thoughts and their feelings on subjects ranging from the simple to deep philosophical thoughts. New features were eventually added that allowed people to start posting art and it became a great place to see what people are working on.
In my opinion that was about the point when the medium slowly shifted from likes validating natural trends to the idea of “creating” trends from discussions that were popular due to likes and retweets. Woke or not what is worse is now the number of likes and retweets of posts get falsely equated to what is “right” or “true” due to unchecked mob rule. There is no dislike ratio to any conversation so people can post narratives that are known to be false or unproven but are carried forward simply because they are “liked” by their friends and followers. I always try to be civil with people on Twitter and they don’t know how to handle it. I try to correct people on both sides of issues that are flat out wrong about things only to be called a woke cuck or soy boy by folks on the right, or a Nazi sympathizer by folks on the left because I refuse to burn the books of people who do not agree with me.
Originally I thought this was because I was dealing with young people on a public forum but these are not children. They are grown ass adults. Some are supposed to be experienced men and women who are professionals in their fields. I guess my long winded point is you don’t have to leave. What I have found is that the toxic people tend to drift more toward the people I am following as opposed to people who are talking to me directly. So I have reduced my Twitter toxicity by reducing the number of people I follow who have toxic followers. I don’t go looking for silly online fights on Twitter and I am too old to give a shit about like ratios. A few years ago I totally eliminated follower and following lists and try to stick to only people I have had positive business or personal experiences with. It did wonders for me with the platform.