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Quitting Twitter

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Re: Quitting Twitter

#101

Post by sevilo »

smithmayowa wrote: post #78
PragmaticPulp wrote: post #71

My approach to Twitter has been to aggressively unfollow anyone posting content that I don’t want to be consuming. That ranges from constantly dunking on every opportunity to people who simply tweet too many times per day. The best content and discussion comes from small groups of people with similar interests who aren’t using Twitter simply to fill time or to build their personal brand. Removing everyone else doesn’…

Paul Graham tweets agressively, but I doubt you will block him though, not everyone who tweets agressively is toxic.

and you just perfectly highlighted the toxicity of twitter in that sentence. Just because someone is popular doesn't mean everyone should like/listen to them if they do not find the person's content aligns with them.

Re: Quitting Twitter

#102

Post by firebaze »

el-salvador wrote: post #51
firebaze wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're still supporting a platform where avoiding toxic content is active mental work.

Twitter's algorithm has a way of showing most toxic or controversial posts and comments first. There are people that are very good friends of mine in Real Life, but their Twitter profiles show a completely toxic persona. This doesn't happen with their other social media profiles. TikTok on the other hand shows up higher more "feel-good" content which is why it's the only social media app I have installed on my phone.

I wouldn't be able to replicate your experience. My friends on twitter are either sidelining toxicity (by simply ignoring the usual in/outgroup messaging) or by just posting their (non-political, non-controversial, technical) stuff.

I don't know toxic people on twitter behaving the same on other social networks.

Re: Quitting Twitter

#103

Post by tjr225 »

7800 wrote: post #83
PragmaticPulp wrote: post #71

My approach to Twitter has been to aggressively unfollow anyone posting content that I don’t want to be consuming. That ranges from constantly dunking on every opportunity to people who simply tweet too many times per day. The best content and discussion comes from small groups of people with similar interests who aren’t using Twitter simply to fill time or to build their personal brand. Removing everyone else doesn’…

Doesn’t this by definition mean that you’re in a social media bubble with those who agree with you?

I've started to wonder if "bubbles" are a good thing. Others beliefs shouldn't be foisted on me at any given moment of my day, and if I don't care to hear them there isn't anything wrong with that.

Moreover, communication seems less hostile and more nuanced when we aren't forced to discuss everything with everyone at once. That is why more focused communities like this one seem to be more enjoyable to use.

Re: Quitting Twitter

#104

Post by thereare5lights »

smithmayowa wrote: post #78
PragmaticPulp wrote: post #71

My approach to Twitter has been to aggressively unfollow anyone posting content that I don’t want to be consuming. That ranges from constantly dunking on every opportunity to people who simply tweet too many times per day. The best content and discussion comes from small groups of people with similar interests who aren’t using Twitter simply to fill time or to build their personal brand. Removing everyone else doesn’…

Paul Graham tweets agressively, but I doubt you will block him though, not everyone who tweets agressively is toxic.

I did. I wouldn't unblock.

> not everyone who tweets agressively is toxic.

This doesn't matter.

It's about controlling what kind of energy you let into your life.

Negative energy needs to go.

Re: Quitting Twitter

#105

Post by 888666 »

7800 wrote: post #83
PragmaticPulp wrote: post #71

My approach to Twitter has been to aggressively unfollow anyone posting content that I don’t want to be consuming. That ranges from constantly dunking on every opportunity to people who simply tweet too many times per day. The best content and discussion comes from small groups of people with similar interests who aren’t using Twitter simply to fill time or to build their personal brand. Removing everyone else doesn’…

Doesn’t this by definition mean that you’re in a social media bubble with those who agree with you?

Sure, but I use Twitter to relax and enjoy specific types of content. It doesn't need to be your source of knowledge.

Re: Quitting Twitter

#106

Post by nercury »

Twitter has a useful feature: unfollow. Just follow what you want to read, and curate the content this way.

The other issue, getting more followers, is all about posting something worth following.

Re: Quitting Twitter

#107

Post by grioghar »

tradesmanhelix wrote: post #48

I recently "quit" Twitter myself. I say "quit" because if you actually delete/remove/whatever your account, your handle may then become available for others to use. To avoid that, I used a combo of scripts/services to remove all of my Twitter data (tweets, likes, follows, etc.) and scrubbed my bio, profile pics, etc. I also set a reminder to log in every 6 months to avoid being purged and have my handle become availa…

Thank you for that. I am going to investigate this further. I didn’t think there was a functioning way of doing this.

I’d really like to find something similar for Instagram. I want to consume that without creating an account, but haven’t figure out how.

Re: Quitting Twitter

#108

Post by mariodiana »

The world would be a much better place if Twitter were used only by mouth-breathing weirdos battling one another in full-on flame wars over which is better: vi or emacs.

I'm not joking. I think the pathology that exists on Twitter has always been with us. But, years ago, there was only a "select" group of individuals who had their pathology amplified by Internet forums. Now, people who have no idea what a flame war even is — much less vi or emacs — go to war day after day. And there are millions of them, from every walk of life.

So, we've demonstrated flame wars are scalable. Hooray.

Re: Quitting Twitter

#109

Post by picks_at_nits »

Nextgrid wrote: post #68
picks_at_nits wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We don't get to declare what Twitter is or isn't. It has evolved over time from a kind of microblogging platform into an algorithmic-timeline social network. As a user, I don't care for it much, but in no way is it "defective." It does what it does, and if we don't like it, it's our obligation to make sure the door doesn't hit us in the ass on our way out. The thing we have to understand is that we who want a microbl…

The concept of following still (at least to me) implies seeing all the content said person is posting. Twitter liberally uses the word "follow" but then doesn't deliver. They are not being transparent about your experience being manipulated for the purposes of generating engagement either. Most non-technical people don't immediately associate "contains ads" with "will use all kinds of nasty tricks to make you spend m…

a printer manufacturer will tell you that ink cartridge DRM is not a defect, or some smart juice press manufacturer will tell you that its online-only requirement and juice pack DRM is also not a defect.

There's a phrase for this: "Defective by design." Meaning, what we the observer consider to be a harmful quality of the product is not an accident or oversight, but a deliberate choice.

I say similar things about Slack's iPad client. It's defective by design.

Likewise, web sites that choose not to be accessible are defective-by-design. If you ask their product manager, the response will be, "Accessibility is not a priority, and we can live with people who need accessible web sites doing business with someone else."

Of course, it's implicit in the phrase "defective by design" that this kind of defective is not exactly the same kind of "defective" as the product not doing the thing its creators designed it to do, or not doing the thing that their target market expect it to do.

Re: Quitting Twitter

#110

Post by m3kw9 »

There are many ways to use Twitter, the me of them isn’t to try to build followers, but to build a good follow list to learn from the best
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