
My Farewell to Twitter - user_235711
http://passionatereason.com/2017/01/my-farewell-to-twitter/
======
wmccullough
I'm was never at the level described by the author, but I left Twitter for the
same thing. I too am a creator and I'd get retweets with very little action.
That was a huge moment for me because I realized the reality of Twitter. It's
one giant bullshit factory.

You can even tell how much it affects the minds of people who are prolific
other places. Writers for tech blogs stop writing about useful shit and start
writing about the reactions of twitter posts. You can see how the self
obsession causes people to try to craft those perfect 140 characters. Everyone
thinks they are a comedian.

In the end I found that no matter how diverse your followership, Twitter is a
hopeless echo chamber populated by twentysomethings with no real life
experience who are chomping at the bit to eat you alive if you don't conform
to the enforced political correctness of the moment.

I'll never go back.

~~~
csydas
> You can even tell how much it affects the minds of people who are prolific
> other places. Writers for tech blogs stop writing about useful shit and
> start writing about the reactions of twitter posts. You can see how the self
> obsession causes people to try to craft those perfect 140 characters.
> Everyone thinks they are a comedian. In the end I found that no matter how
> diverse your followership, Twitter is a hopeless echo chamber populated by
> twentysomethings with no real life experience who are chomping at the bit to
> eat you alive if you don't conform to the enforced political correctness of
> the moment.

I wouldn't quite go that far; I barely use Twitter - the concept is not
appealing to me and I really don't care for the type of interaction it
enables, but to call it an echo chamber is basically the same as calling the
Internet an echo chamber. You are limited by your decisions on who you want to
associate with and who you want to read. The suggestions may be tailored to
you, but ultimately you pick. Anyone can find an echo chamber for themselves
on Twitter.

Many businesses have found a lot of value in Twitter - status accounts, event
updates, and so on are handled really well through Twitter as the platform
lends itself to subscription via text as well; I've used it successfully in
the past for such purposes and we never had a problem with it.

How you decide to invest yourself in the system will determine your
experience. The social interaction part of twitter isn't for me because it's
not really the kind of conversations I like and I find the format limiting.
But that doesn't mean it's a bad system, it's just not my cup of tea,

~~~
wmccullough
I think there is more to it than that now. I think how you market on Twitter
is totally unique from the way you do it anywhere else. Success on that
medium, depending on the thing you are marketing, can become predicated on a
number of things.

For example, I've witnessed game developers who were making truly beautiful
things, who got stonewalled because they wouldn't drink the current koolaid.
That flavor of koolaid at the moment happens to be the results of the election
and defining where you stand. A few years back, I saw great indie companies
getting blackballed because of anything less than purist views on subjects
like gamergate.

I do think you can penetrate and market well on Twitter, but it comes with
quite a few ifs. Maybe this comes, for the first time, with having a marketing
platform with instant human feedback (note: I did not say customer).

~~~
erikpukinskis
> I saw great indie companies getting blackballed because of anything less
> than purist views on subjects like gamergate.

I think that's ok. We used to have a notion that a product is just a product,
and we should all just pretend the people making it are apolitical and enjoy
the product on its own merits.

But that leads to a world where resources pool up in random places. This guy
has a billion dollars because he makes a beverage a lot of people like? Why?
Are beverage skills the barometer for deciding how resources are allocated?

I should note that this system works OK when there is an additional pool of
public resources that people can rely on. If private revenue is "spending
cash" but the state still controls its natural resources, and cities have a
commons, and extended families take care of each other, things are kind of OK.

But that's over now, we are privatizing 100% of resources, so now revenue
really has to be a perfect proxy for how we think resources should be
allocated, from a social/moral perspective.

So now we are moving to a world where that guy needs to not only make a nice
beverage but he needs to show that he shares our values, because we're not
just buying a soda, we are deciding who will starve, which ecosystems will be
destroyed, and what kinds of people will be unemployed.

If someone needs an indie game maker to disavow feminist commentators in order
to feel comfortable buying a game... well, I disagree with the moral stance,
but I support very much that person's right to spend their money and influence
that way. We have no other choice in a capitalist system.

------
turc1656
I am proud to say I essentially shun all socia media. I have never had a
Twitter or Instagram account. I do have Facebook, but I essentially never use
it - I haven't posted anything in years other than "happy birthday" to a few
people.

Social media has always been incredibly self-centered and narcissistic. But
over the last few years it has become a truly nasty place with all the flame
wars and political crap going on. Everyone has something to say. And no one
listens to anyone else. I have no use for such a medium in my life.

Twitter is by far the worst of all social media because of the limited message
length. No well-reasoned arguments can be expressed in that short limit so we
are instead left with a battle for the snarkiest, most sarcastic comments
people can muster.

The so-called "discourse" in America (and probably the world) has reached a
new pathetic low. I am confident I am not missing out on anything of actual
value.

~~~
wpietri
No offense intended, but what you're doing here, a performative version of
your life described in a way that makes you look good, is a big social media
activity. As is the broad critique of society and particular things in it.

I'd add that I don't think current social media tools are much different than
my experience of Usenet and Listservs of yore. Or HN. Or the offline world
where a lot of people are thrown together, like schools and workplaces. People
are people.

As an introvert, I pretty easily get tired of people, so I can sympathize with
your reaction. And I go through periods of seeing the worst in people. But
that's more about what I'm seeing than about what people are.

~~~
dwaltrip
You can't tell the difference between Facebook and HN? C'mon.

You actually have a good point, but by overstressing the similarities of
social behavior on different sites you make the point weaker. We do some
similar self promotion and efforts to improve how others perceive us in face-
to-face interactions as well, but no one would refer to that as "social
media".

~~~
wpietri
No, then they just call it "social". Which is my point: the differences
between the social media platforms, HN included, are relatively small. The
commonalities are vast. People are people.

------
cyberferret
You know, the author of this blog post echoes my thoughts almost verbatim. I
am feeling like I am swept away in filthy, roiling, floodwater every time I
switch to my Twitter tab. It has become exhausting, and a detriment to my
actual work, so I am going to take a sabbatical.

Facebook to a lesser extent - that platform is still a useful means to
communicate with family who are scattered wide.

By far, I am really enjoying Instagram at the moment - it is SO much more
peaceful and non-confrontational. I only have a tiny couple of hundred
followers, and am following about the same number of friends, musicians,
guitar makers, tea manufacturers and such. It is just _nice_ to sit back and
scroll through my feed and see uplifting images with NO arguments or one
upmanship or sniping going on...

~~~
zimpenfish
> I am feeling like I am swept away in filthy, roiling, floodwater every time
> I switch to my Twitter tab.

Surely the answer there is "follow better people"?

~~~
cyberferret
Generally, I do, including other developers and business people etc. But of
late, the tensions and general angst at the US political situation etc. has
meant that normally calm, rational people have been getting frayed around the
edges and retweeting or getting involved in online arguments, so my feed is
corrupted by that.

I am no innocent, as I have contributed a bit myself of late - it is hard to
suppress that welling of indignation, anger and frustration sometimes.

~~~
jdietrich
My Twitter feed is very carefully curated, but the signal-to-noise ratio has
plummeted over the past few weeks. Between Trump and Brexit, it seems like
everyone's buttons have been firmly pushed.

~~~
eric_h
The signal-to-noise on my feed has been on a downward spiral since before the
election, it's honestly just gotten progressively worse, with no sign of
improvement on the horizon.

------
eddieroger
I must be using Twitter wrong, because seeing that these articles come up so
frequently, I feel like I'm one of the last people who still likes it. I did
get turned off when it got marketer heavy (right around when App.net tried to
be a thing), but came back to it a few years ago. I only follow ~700 people,
and am followed by ~300, so I know I don't get most of the spam that heavily
followed people get. In the nearly 10 years I've had an account, I've only
posted 5400ish tweets, so I consume far more than I contribute. But, in
general, I like it again. I get headlines from my local news outlets,
occasional pictures from Star Wars sets, thoughts of other folks I admire and
aspire to be like, and an outlet for the short, dumb things I have to say. If
I wanted to write longer form, I have a blog, so I have never done those 10+
tweet storm things, and never typed "/1" at the end of a tweet. It's never
open on my computer, so it's mostly checked on the couch, while waiting in
lines, or when I'm otherwise idle.

I think this is where I differ with the author of the article is that the
expectation of return for me from Twitter is zero. If I go a day without
checking, I don't care. If I post something to it that dies on the vine, I
don't care. Sometimes I get likes, sometimes retweets, but nothing I put out
there is expected to have a return.

~~~
overcast
You're ahead of the game if you don't care about any of that. Question is
though, why bother using it at that point?

~~~
couchpillow
Sometimes just the act of writing something down or putting something out
there is therapeutic in a way, isn't it? Sharing can feel good even if it is
only with a single other person. Doesn't have to be a 'best seller' and
'liked' the world over to be meaningful to yourself. If I post silly little
thought or quip, I'll chuckle to myself, and move on with my life. Doesn't
matter to me if anyone else actually sees it, shares it or whatever else. I
got the laugh I needed out of it. Maybe someone else will. Maybe no one will.
If you're marketing or have some deep need to be loved by internet strangers,
the stats are important. But some people just like to share for the sake of
sharing and aren't in it for the points.

~~~
overcast
If you're serious about that, I would just launch your own ghost / wordpress
instance.

------
angry-hacker
I have given up on social media too, but not for "Stallman" reasons but rather
it makes me unhappy.

Hacker News is the only place I visit and thought HN the websites too. I have
visited HN every night for the past 4 or 5 years. It gives me everything I
need, I need to stay away from politics though because I don't agree with
majority here and discussing things makes me depressed.

~~~
aedron
+1. HN is a sanctuary and I really hope it stays that way, despite people
syaing I am 'sticking my head in the sand' by requesting politics be kept off
the site.

------
noahbradley
I left Facebook a couple years ago and Twitter a couple weeks ago. I used both
somewhat successfully to promote my work for a long time.

I find it remarkable how much better my life feels already. I have so much
more focus, energy, and concentration to devote to my work. I don't have the
constant nagging at the back of my mind to mindlessly scroll. Left without an
easy escape, I find my focus tends to go towards actually creating things. And
if I feel the itch to interact with people, it's more of a one-on-one
interaction.

I highly recommend trying it.

------
Tistel
Warning, this will be slightly vulgar. If you go to zoo and see primates that
are mad, they sometimes throw _ahem_ waste products at each other. We share
96% (or whatever) DNA with them. I am willing to bet $2.56 that if you did a
MRI scan of a monkey in "throw mode" and a human on social media ranting, the
same parts of the brain will light up.

I am so sick of politics (all sides)

------
imartin2k
Did the same in November. The aspect regarding the "silence" mentioned in the
article is actually quite amazing. I'm still not fully used to it so sometimes
it seems as if I have forgotten to do something important. But no, it's just
that there is no witty tweet that has to be drafted or a (possibly heated)
discussion that has to be continued.

------
overcast
This seems to be the trend over the past couple of years. Started with Twitter
with me, then Facebook, then Reddit. Hacker News, YouTube, and a couple mature
news sites are about all I use outside of my own projects at this point. I've
even gotten to the point, where I've installed comment section blockers in my
browsers, so I won't see all of the horrible things people say to one another
these days.

I'm honestly surprised on how much things like SnapChat, and even Facebook are
still growing. It must be just the very young crowd, that hasn't gotten
completely sick of it by now.

~~~
kj01a
>It must be just the very young crowd, that hasn't gotten completely sick of
it by now

Also the older crowd. My mother loves telling me what she saw on facebook. I'd
be willing to bet it's just the millennial demographic in the middle that
shows low social media usage.

EDIT: Btw, which news sites?

~~~
overcast
Would be interesting to see that graph, though I suspect we never will.

Edit: Quick scan of google news, and arstechnica is basically enough to get
today's info out of the way.

------
warcode
Why not just create a completely new account with no ties to who you actually
are, follow the cat picture accounts, Neil deGrasse Tyson and whatever else
you are interested in?

Trying to get more followers seems to be the bad thing.

~~~
TheRealDunkirk
Because you'll wind up in the same place. You might start off more detached,
but you'll eventually be just as emotionally invested in the responses to
whatever you do with that account.

------
vonklaus
Went into the article assuming it was another anti free speech whine piece.
Was pleasantly surprised that it was more generally about social media, MH,
and a dependency cycle.

This pervades social media culture and as is noted in the article-- a user
_knows_ it is taking a toll but the rush is a driving factor. It is like drug,
or any addiction-- captivating and hard to break.

Decent article, nice change of pace from other articles recently.

------
facetube
Here's a previous HN post along the same lines – the foreboding letter to the
future, if you will, from an ex-Google design ethicist:
[https://medium.com/swlh/how-technology-hijacks-peoples-
minds...](https://medium.com/swlh/how-technology-hijacks-peoples-minds-from-a-
magician-and-google-s-design-ethicist-56d62ef5edf3).

------
james_pm
I'm right there with you. Unfollowed everyone, set my profile to say "I'm
out." and told people to send me an iMessage if they want to chat. I'm still
composing meaningless tweets in my mind.

Hopefully another few weeks will cure me of this, although after 10 years, I
suspect it might take much longer.

------
thraway2016
Twitter has been good in the past. After the election, it was still mostly ok.
But since the inauguration, it's a completely different story.

One example close to the heart of HN: following tptacek/tqbf for
crypto/business/security/how-to-cook-pork/funny-ESR-excerpts for years has
suddenly turned into endless berating of people into enduring struggle
sessions over support of the President.

And this is but one example. It's happening to everybody. For some reason, the
inauguration has turned nominally good Tweeps into horrible human beings.

So yes, I've had to leave Twitter also.

------
joecool1029
Not gonna lie, clicked this headline hoping it was @jack's resignation.

------
getpost
I enjoyed using Twitter for ~8 years. It gave me access to news and opinions
from groups that aren't covered by traditional media, and it functioned as an
RSS feed for people I wanted to follow (authors, researchers, etc.)

However, I quit Twitter because it wouldn't let me control my own data. I was
in the habit of favoriting things that I wanted to follow-up on. Then Twitter
changed Favorites to "likes," which wrongly implies I'm endorsing the content.
Twitterati know that likes don't necessarily mean anything, but imagine a
customs officer looking at my likes, for example. Twitter doesn't provide a
method to batch remove all likes, so I tried various 3rd party utilities. The
utilities seemed to work initially, but likes would later reappear, even
months later, as if restored from a backup.

This experience helped me see that silos can never be trusted.

------
bachmeier
Twitter is a great way to get your name out there and establish a relationship
with others. It's a terrible way to make direct sales, because that's not why
people go to Twitter. If they're on Amazon (which _is_ a place they go to buy
stuff) maybe they'll type your name into the search bar because of what they
saw on Twitter.

I treat my Twitter account as a personal account. I don't tweet very much, and
if I want to take a week off, I don't even check Twitter. I am happy I did
that, because I'd hate to feel an obligation to be on there now that
everything is politics.

------
JustSomeNobody
Ok, but who are you?

------
to3m
Interesting - PgUp/PgDn stop working when I maximize the window. I've got a
1440x2560 screen.

Relevance to Twitter? (a) Twitter as its worst is still 10x better than this
sort of thing; (b) Twitter's Following page doesn't work properly at this
resolution either.

