
Quit Twitter (2019) - apsec112
https://medium.com/swlh/why-you-should-quit-twitter-9b93396def2d
======
mastazi
How to remove Twitter Trends permanently, both on the site and on the mobile
app:

1\. Open Twitter in a desktop browser (should work the same on mobile but I
did this on desktop)

2\. Go to Settings -> Content Preferences -> Explore Settings

3\. De-select "Show content in this location"

4\. Click on "Explore locations" and select Bhutan

5\. Ignore the warning informing you that Buthan's Trending section does not
exist, and save.

~~~
mastazi
Unfortunately someone at Twitter read my comment... The Bhutan trending
section exists now. :-(

------
rvz
Generally, there really is no point to using Twitter.

There's evidence of manipluation of threads [0], shadow-banning / blacklisting
of users on the 'platform' in light of the admin tool leak [1]

Not only 'Trends' are subject to manipluation artificially, but it now matters
more about 'who's tweets' actually do show up on Top or Trending sections;
even with similar Likes, hearts and comments. Take this tweet [2] for example
which proves that they are 'shadow-banned' on the trends section and still has
similar stats like the trending tweet.

I won't be suprised to see the same in Instagram, TikTok or many others these
days.

[0]
[https://twitter.com/ArcVRArthur/status/1282436347421171712](https://twitter.com/ArcVRArthur/status/1282436347421171712)

[1] [https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/jgxd3d/twitter-insider-
ac...](https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/jgxd3d/twitter-insider-access-panel-
account-hacks-biden-uber-bezos)

[2]
[https://twitter.com/RubinReport/status/1287903462689103872](https://twitter.com/RubinReport/status/1287903462689103872)

~~~
detaro
You can use Twitter completely fine without ever paying any attention to
"Trending" or things like that. For many, it probably makes the experience
better not to do so. (other recommendation: Twitter lets you mute specific
people and phrases. make liberal use of that).

(semi-OT: I'm also surprised how those screenshots are paraded around as "aha!
caught them!". Did anyone seriously think there wasn't any moderation of
trends etc going on before?)

~~~
yakshaving_jgt
> (semi-OT: I'm also surprised how those screenshots are paraded around as
> "aha! caught them!". Did anyone seriously think there wasn't any moderation
> of trends etc going on before?)

This is pretty similar to conspiracy theorists vs normal people with regards
to the US government spying on people before Snowden.

~~~
detaro
I think "anything based on arbitrary user input on a major platform has some
moderation tools" is far from "conspiracy theorists".

~~~
yakshaving_jgt
How far? As I understand it, the conspiracy here is that Twitter uses these
moderation tools to silence people with a certain political perspective. I
think — assuming that is indeed the case — this does lean more on the
conspiratorial side, and is not akin to moderators banning bots trying to
shift cialis pills.

The reason why I liken this to Snowden is because at least anecdotally, the
typically dialogue I have seen is

Conspiracy Theorist: "Twitter are shadow-banning people!"

Normal Person A: "That's a dumb conspiracy theory."

Twitter: "We are not shadow-banning people."

Normal Person B: "Here is proof that Twitter shadow-bans people."

Normal Person A: "Well yeah, obviously. It would be pretty naïve to think they
weren't always doing this."

\---

You can quite accurately substitute Twitter with the US government, shadow-
banning with spying, and Normal Person B with Edward Snowden.

~~~
detaro
I was specifically just talking about the reaction to the trending mod tools
existing, as if that was bad or surprising in itself. That there are mod tools
doesn't prove that there is political targeting. And in reverse, if you claim
that Twitter isn't especially targeting some group, you hopefully aren't
basing that claim on a naive "they can't be doing that because they don't have
moderation tools".

------
kristianc
This comes up a lot, and it feels like my response is the same every time.
Twitter’s great, but you need to be careful who you follow.

Ruthlessly unfollow or mute those who pander to the lowest common denominator,
avoid general interest politics at all costs, follow only experts in their
field and keep following count below 200. Refuse to play the game of becoming
internet popular - unless you have a blue check, it’s rigged against you
anyway.

------
mynegation
Also, quit Medium while you are at it.

~~~
Antoninus
Quit all social media and spent more time offline.

~~~
cblconfederate
but first get on all social media to debate quitting all social media ad
infinitum

------
ckastner
As Jack Dorsey said [1] in an interview a while ago:

 _" I also don’t feel good about how Twitter tends to incentivize outrage,
fast takes, short term thinking, echo chambers, and fragmented conversation
and consideration."_

I see Twitter as an almost pure outrage machine. I generally avoid it but when
I do visit it and the Tweet I'm reading is about a topic that has two or more
sides, most of the replies shown in response are the just the most vicious and
aggressive attacks by the other side. Just punch lines or insults.

[1]
[https://twitter.com/jack/status/1095457906848231424](https://twitter.com/jack/status/1095457906848231424)

~~~
randomsearch
Recently I started muting people on Twitter according to a few rules: anything
where they were telling people how to behave (“i don’t know who needs to hear
this but it’s not ok to do X”); anything very sanctimonious; anything
attacking a person rather than debating their views; anything discriminating
against someone based on their skin, their background, etc.

The end result, after many weeks of muting, was fascinating: firstly, twitter
became much more considered and informative. And secondly, it became far, far,
less engaging! I’d read something and think “huh, that’s useful” or “seems
reasonable” and with a yawn close the app.

Enragement is engagement. Twitter (the business) has failed to figure out what
problem it solves, what its really _for_, and that vacuum of leadership has
been filled by the emergent consequences of its algorithms.

------
systematical
So I deleted my old twitter, which suffered from some of the problems the
author points out. After six months or so I agreed to create a new one and
only post things related to software development and technology, positive
things. Mostly engaging with development communities and promoting my own
libraries. Likewise, the people I follow pretty much stick to tech. I don't
mind if they post family photos here and there, but mostly people I follow
stick to tech. That's it....

I created an anonymous account for everything else.

------
54351623
The person who wrote this should probably talk to a therapist about his
obsession with hunting people down online instead of blaming a social network
site.

------
CaptArmchair
I joined Twitter back in 2007. Early days. It was great as a micro-blogging
platform. People mostly just logged about what was going on in their lives.
Most already had a digital presence elsewhere as bloggers and such. And there
was a lot of experimentation going on.

Then things picked up and there was a massive influx of people and companies.
That's when things changed. In and of itself, the public debate isn't a bad
thing: it's, above all, a function of a larger, more diverse audience trooping
in one place. The fact of the matter is that Twitter, as a private company,
never had any incentive to create the affordances to cater to the complexities
and intricacies that come with hosting the public debate. On the contrary.

I just stopped using Twitter at the end of last year, for the sake of my own
mental well being. That doesn't exclude me from being concerned or being
reflective about the topics and current events that are on everyone's mind
these days. Not being on Twitter helped me reclaim mental bandwidth to reflect
on my own life, here and now, and allows me to consider the world in a
critical and compassionate way without sapping my energy.

------
snowwrestler
I love Twitter, it is my favorite social network and I get tremendous value
out of it.

For me the keys were:

\- Be fast to follow and unfollow accounts. It's hard to build a valuable
feed, and requires a lot of experimentation. Some accounts I felt sure would
be valuable are not (for example, info security researchers who only tweet
complaints about travel rewards programs). And some accounts that seemed
marginal turned out to be great, like some socialist/leftists who are also
hilarious.

\- Don't write tweets. Seriously, unless you are really trying to build a
personal brand, there's no reason to tweet. Same with retweets.

\- Remember any tweet you enjoyed and might want to see again. You can do this
with the "like" button, or by bookmarking.

\- Block or force-unfollow anyone following you, who you don't like. A force-
unfollow is done by blocking and then immediately unblocking that account.
Doing this silently knocks them off your follower list.

\- Ultimately I made my account private to make it easier to focus on reading.

------
DoreenMichele
I happen to like Twitter. Me and Facebook have never gotten on well.

To each his own.

------
konart
I love twitter. I follow great number of artists and tech guys and people I
used to be friends with in Livejournal (some of them I met in person).

I always wonder how people even come across problems such as hate speech and
toxic people over there. Politic threads with people who have no understanding
of the topic they are talking about? Stop joining trashy and pointless
discussions - problem solved.

~~~
scollet
Sometimes it's worth the effort to extend yourself into less than desirable
situations because the message is more than worth its debate. I'm not saying
argue ad infinitum, but inject a piece of reason in a place of
disillusionment.

------
badrabbit
Let's just be clear, as companies Twitter is much better than facebook. A lot
of the "toxicity" hate against twitter had to do with people on the platform
not the platform itself. That said, I hope mastodon improves quite a bit more
to be competitive.

------
stanislavb
It'd be interesting to know what's the percentage of HN users that use Twitter
actively.

~~~
Jaxan
I use it to follow a bunch of academics. They share papers and ideas. It is
nice as long as you avoid politics.

------
jraedisch
Just wanted to mention
[https://tweetdeck.twitter.com/](https://tweetdeck.twitter.com/) in case
someone did not know it. No 3rd party, no trends, tweets in order, etc..

------
numpad0
RT what you’d upvote, quote URL for what you’d downvote, reply if there’s
something to be said, and just keep posting ideas and arts in general(and
don’t repost)

Quitting it is arguably better tho

------
blisseyGo
I would actually be curious if one were to start charging for each social
media, which of them most people would be willing to pay vs which ones would
disappear.

Out of:

Snapchat

TikTok

Facebook

Instagram

Whatsapp

Twitter

Reddit

Quora

HN

~~~
rydre
HN/bookface only. Reddit once used to be good for real reviews/opinions. But
now it's full of shills/manipulation bots who do not disclose themselves. The
conversation and comments do not feel organic either and highly manipulated on
international/news/geopolitical/political/sensitive things. It's like someone
wants to force us to change our views.

~~~
midasz
Reddit is still the best for specific topics imho, I wouldn't mind switching
to a forum but if I want to read about and discuss football (soccer), news
about my country, old school runescape, and stuff like /r/IdiotsInCars there's
really no alternative for me (since I haven't used FB in years).

~~~
rydre
> _news about my country_

I would recommend that if you're from the U.S., just subscribe to the Reuters
RSS feed and one Chinese state public broadcast channel (globaltimes.cn).
That's it. You'd know what both sides say and form an independent opinion
after that.

If you're Chinese, follow one of the reputable American media (not CNN, Fox,
New York Times etc they're low quality entertainment sources, not news) but
something like AP or Reuters in addition to your own. Never believe one side.

------
rydre
Twitter trends are manipulated. Do not take them seriously. They're a tool of
social engineering.

~~~
scollet
It's worth studying the trends.

------
searchableguy
I am getting a dejavu from this thread.

Arguments used to justify twitter always rely on certain users of the
platform. I am not sure how that makes twitter good as a platform. By staying
on the platform, you are forcing other developers and people to use it to
announce their projects and keep you up-to-date aka networks effect.

~~~
detaro
I follow people on Twitter because they post on Twitter. If they'd post
somewhere else, I'd probably follow them there (within some limits). That
doesn't mean I post updates about my stuff there - if others want to follow my
updates, they can go where those are.

