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Quitting Twitter

blog.nindalf.com

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Re: Quitting Twitter

#191

Post by tradesmanhelix »

kyle-rb wrote: post #137
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…

fyi they never actually implemented that "purge inactive accounts" thing. I remember people bringing up the issue of dead people's accounts being deleted/taken over, but idk if that was why they shelved it.

That's good to know, thanks. Although, I will probably still log in periodically, just in case they ever do decide to implement that policy.

Re: Quitting Twitter

#192

Post by dgudkov »

Twitter could've been so much better if people could post into different channels instead of dumping everything into one feed. Humans are multi-faceted beings and their communication is multi-faceted too. Not supporting it in communication software is just poor abstraction.

I want to be able to choose which facet of a person I'm interested in, and which not. Instead, Twitter proposes the "all or nothing" approach. Either you follow everything, or nothing. No wonder we have strong social polarization and social bubbles.

Re: Quitting Twitter

#193

Post by rconti »

ketzo wrote: post #8

For a post called "Quitting Twitter", I think this piece actually does a great job summarizing the really cool things about Twitter. I think there's something a little magical about finding someone you really respect in your field, responding to one of their tweets, and getting a thoughtful response six minutes later! The toxicity is rough, though. It exhausts me on big subreddits, too -- it's impossible to have conv…

I pretty much entirely agree with the author. I've never derived value from Twitter, try as I might. I think some personalities are better suited to the decentralized, broadcast-and-hope, follow-the-experts, ratings-driven content.

I get a lot more value out of forums about a topic, or HN, or groups of friends I already know. Facebook groups on my hobbies, etc. Joining/participating in "private" (but open to anyone) groups rather than broadcasting outwards to all and getting engagement through shock/clickbait type content.

That doesn't mean what works for me has to work for you, though, and of course it's without getting into how problematic one platform's LEADERSHIP might be versus another.

Re: Quitting Twitter

#194

Post by dragonwriter »

dgudkov wrote: post #192

Twitter could've been so much better if people could post into different channels instead of dumping everything into one feed. Humans are multi-faceted beings and their communication is multi-faceted too. Not supporting it in communication software is just poor abstraction. I want to be able to choose which facet of a person I'm interested in, and which not. Instead, Twitter proposes the "all or nothing" approach. Ei…

> Twitter could've been so much better if people could post into different channels instead of dumping everything into one feed.

Twitter has posting tools for that which could be better, but they exist, are simple, and are widely used) with hashtags and mentions.

What it doesn't do is surface a UI that makes it convenient to set up a list of such channels to view and to set one as your default channel instead of the basic feed.

That is, as I understand, a common tool of third-party clients, though.

Re: Quitting Twitter

#195

Post by rconti »

dgudkov wrote: post #192

Twitter could've been so much better if people could post into different channels instead of dumping everything into one feed. Humans are multi-faceted beings and their communication is multi-faceted too. Not supporting it in communication software is just poor abstraction. I want to be able to choose which facet of a person I'm interested in, and which not. Instead, Twitter proposes the "all or nothing" approach. Ei…

Completely agree. One feed, driven by "engagement" (read: outrage).

I tried to follow experts in a field, but the content was 90% about things NOT in their field that I don't care about. The algorithm drives toxicity in a way that is ALSO true about (say) Facebook news article comments; however, my usage of Facebook is not to consume THAT content, but to consume the ACTUAL content of my ACTUAL friends. I'm not "important" enough on Twitter to get any engagement, which I don't really care about, because I'm not trying to be a personality or an influencer, or overuse hashtags for attention and clicks. But then on those rare occasions when you WOULD get value from a large circle, you don't have it.

Facebook's drive to require "real names" some years ago, for what it's worth today, has also made it more "familiar. And I'm seeing my friends' content, and, at worse, their off-color or vaguely toxic friends. Some of that stuff sucks to see, but it's far better than the algo-driven firehouse of content from random people I get on Twitter.

And on Twitter and IG, the people who I DO know that I follow, are generally a subset of IRL friends, and I'll probably see their content on FB. And anyway, half of them are using generic made-up monikers that change each week and I can't keep track of, or don't care to.

Re: Quitting Twitter

#196

Post by jazzido »

leesalminen wrote: post #2

I quit Twitter about 6 months ago. It was eerily similar to quitting smoking (which I did a couple years ago). Honestly, that scared me straight. The fact that an app on my phone had similar addictive qualities to tobacco was alarming enough to keep me off. I still get the urge to log back in sometimes, but luckily I perma-nuked the account so I’d be starting from scratch, which is a large enough barrier to keep me f…

I could've written your same comment. As a (current) smoker, my experience of having quit twitter is exactly the same.

I recently blogged about that [1]. It's in spanish, but Google translate does an acceptable job with it.

[1] https://blog.jazzido.com/uncategorized/2021/02/12/mejore-su-...

Re: Quitting Twitter

#197

Post by rconti »

undefined1 wrote: post #62

quitting Twitter will improve your life, but here's the problem: it leaves it to the most radical. and why is that a problem? because there is a pipeline from Twitter into the real world, especially via journalists and politicians who live on there. what's the answer? I'd love to hear ideas! but I think either we need many, many more reasonable voices on Twitter (an uphill battle, given the platform rewards and optim…

I often remind journalists "real people don't use Twitter". It's not entirely true, of course, but it's largely bots, people pretending to be bots, celebrities, people pretending to be celebrities, and journalists. It's performative.

Re: Quitting Twitter

#198

Post by Brendinooo »

adventured wrote: post #179
nlh wrote: post #177

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Slight non sequitur here but what you said about addictive qualities reminds me of a similar experience I had with a game a few years ago. I've never been hooked on nicotine or similar, but toward the end of 2017 a game (Simcity Buildit) dug deeeeeeeeep into my soul and for the first time in my life I had to aggressively quit something like that cold turkey. First I should say: It's a great game and really fun! (HA -…

I'm a bit surprised a city builder is highly playable on mobile. I've played Cities Skylines on desktop (and versions of SimCity in the past). I can't imagine trying to build anything of scale on mobile in a city builder though. Is it primarily the mechanics, feedback systems, that are enjoyable, rather than the visual construction aspect?

I got hooked on this in December after getting an iPad. Trying to moderate my usage. It helps to realize that 1) it's supposed to be fun and 2) I'll never be the best. I'd imagine I'll get off it a bit more once the weather warms up.

It's really well-made. My biggest knock on it is that it's a typical "milk as much money as possible out of the user" game, so you never know which mechanics are truly random or which ones are set up to hack your psychology. Some of the nags/alerts wear on you. I also wish it was a bit more optimized for aesthetics (no diagonal roads!).

But the UX is extremely good. The visuals are nice. The contests and general gameplay goals are engaging and fun. It's 4X-like, with that "one more turn" vibe and the need to balance multiple goals.

Re: Quitting Twitter

#199

Post by rconti »

An0mammall wrote: post #20
trestenhortz wrote: post #13

I quit Facebook the other day. I didn’t like my online persona. I’d rather friends and family knew me in person or not at all.

I used facebook for promoting local events but in the last ~5 years it was less and less effective for that. Then I used it only for meme groups and getting angry at strangers. Hard quit last summer and never looked back.

You don't have to join meme groups? They're easier to avoid than a toxic algo. I just use groups for hobbies I actually engage in.

Re: Quitting Twitter

#200

Post by setpatchaddress »

dmix wrote: post #169
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’…

I did this for years and then Trump rolled around and every developer and interesting person thought it was their duty to use their feeds as some form of resistance. I remember one case in particular where the guy was a genius at posting niche Middle Ages history and then every other tweet became political and I was so sad, because I absolutely loved his content. As an a-political person who tried hard (but failed oc…

One of the problems is that hashtag usage evolved into a form of signaling for emphasis (#your-slogan-here) instead of a useful way to tag a topic, to the extent that it can read as obnoxious if you do it at all in a serious way.

Another is that it's another moderation headache. Anyone can insert a hashtag for any reason, so anyone will. If you don't police it, it becomes useless; if you do police it, it becomes heavy.

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