Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Quitting Twitter

blog.nindalf.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

171–180 of 292 posts

Re: Quitting Twitter

#171

Post by twic »

reaperducer wrote: post #164
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’…

My approach to Twitter has been to aggressively unfollow anyone posting content that I don’t want to be consuming Doesn't that just leave you in an echo chamber of people who agree with you, and you don't learn anything new? people who simply tweet too many times per day. I'm with you on that one.

> Doesn't that just leave you in an echo chamber of people who agree with you, and you don't learn anything new?

If you follow an account that tweets (reliable!) information about space rockets, you will learn a lot of new things about space rockets.

Not everything on Twitter is a manifestation of a political viewpoint. There is a huge amount of worthwhile stuff that is just informative, interesting, beautiful, or fun.

Re: Quitting Twitter

#172

Post by chaosharmonic »

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’…

> Removing everyone else doesn’t take as much work as I expected, as long as you’re not hesitant to unfollow (or even block) those who distract from your desired timeline.

It's also not even necessarily them. Twitter is enthusiastic in assuming that, because you're engaging with one person, you must also be interested in what they're engaging with.

My efforts to have reasoned debate with one person in my life who was becoming more and more aggressively MAGA (prior to some rather extreme takes on... well, several different incidents) did not in any way equate to having even a remote interest in being flooded with content from Ben Shapiro or Turning Point USA, just because she happened to give it fake Internet points.

I gave up on her Twitter well before I gave up on her as a person for this exact reason.

Re: Quitting Twitter

#173

Post by shruubi »

I've more or less removed Twitter from my life. From my perspective, Twitter turns people into the worst versions of themselves and in some ways has gamified social interaction to the point of making toxic behaviour and witch hunts the default simply because it's the best way to "win points".

To quote WarGames, "the only winning move is not to play."

For the odd occasion when I do log on to Twitter, my rule is simple - if I see a tweet that annoys me or I just don't like, then I block them. I have no wish to spend any time or energy even allowing that stuff around me.

Re: Quitting Twitter

#174

Post by AzzieElbab »

AzzieElbab wrote: post #18

I am perfectly fine using Twitter by following carefully via lists only and not following anyone who regularly makes Twitter storms, not following any celebrities, very few journalists, no major publications/tv networks whatsoever

I know it is more of a disengagement strategy, but with Twitter in it's current state ...

Re: Quitting Twitter

#176

Post by twic »

CodeGlitch wrote: post #157
throwaway894345 wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unfortunately there are a lot of people who behave really well and have really interesting things to say about tech , but for anything political, they just vent really hateful, angry things (or retweet the same). The Go community has a fair amount of this, sadly. It sucks to have to choose, but more importantly I think Twitter actually radicalizes people toward hate and divisiveness. I don't think these people were s…

I honestly think Twitter has managed to rewire our brains, with people being shocked/offended by things that 7 years ago wouldn't have turned heads. Twitter has recognised this, and feeds this effect to increase engagement. Also see Facebook. I'm not sure where this leads but it can't be good.

Something about all your expressions, questions, and silences being visible to everyone else, all the time.

You can see everyone else is constantly tweeting about how awful the Capulets are - your friends mostly aren't, but they're retweeting people who are. You remember one time you expressed some doubts about something the Montagues did and people you don't know turned up to tell you off. You think the Capulets might actually be right about something this one time, but you don't dare say it.

Private conversations give you more room to be wrong, to be uncertain, to be curious, to be uninterested. On Twitter you always have an audience.

Re: Quitting Twitter

#177

Post by nlh »

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…

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 know I sound like a pusher...) I didn't spend any money on it. But man did I spend brain cycles and time on it. A few specific game dynamics really get their hooks into you - this concept of mini game-within-a-game "tournaments" which require your attention over a specific period of time (ahem weekends).

My "rock bottom" was two things: I was on a long drive from LA to SF and I had my girlfriend open up the app to complete a few time-sensitive tasks for me while I was driving. There I was explaining "ok now swipe this. Drag it there. Great. Now do the same on this other thing. Ok thanks love!".

The second was that a common strategy in the game where you start a second instance on a different device to mine certain resources (it was called a "feeder city"). So there I was on any given Friday night sitting on the couch with my iPhone AND iPad open, swiping away.

One day it struck me that there was no end to this cycle. There was no winning. There was just more building and more swiping and more hours to go down the drain, and I just realized I had to quit. So I hard-deleted the game from my phone and iPad right in the middle of a weekend mini-tournament and never looked back.

In the days following, I had very regular twitches and urges to go back. "Just one more"....I realized this was real addiction. Luckily it passed after a few days. But wow - what an eye-opener for me.

Re: Quitting Twitter

#178

Post by cutenewt »

> I think Tiktok gets it right here. No matter who the creator is, if the content is good enough it will get hundreds of thousands of views. That system feels fairer to than Twitter.

How hard would it be to create a TikTok version of Twitter? (that is, a Twitter feed that generated without following anyone)?

Is this simply a matter of nobody having tried this? Or are the signals for text posts insufficient (vs. short form videos)?

Re: Quitting Twitter

#179

Post by adventured »

nlh wrote: post #177
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…

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?

Re: Quitting Twitter

#180

Post by liminal »

garmaine wrote: post #79
liminal wrote: post #45

I check Twitter to learn what I should be outraged about. I literally say to myself "I wonder what I should be outraged about today?" and then lo and behold, Twitter tells me. I don't know where else to get that information. I wish I did, since Twitter is very inefficient with too many people retweeting the same tidbit so they can try their hand at a witty rejoinder. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy the rejoinders, but th…

Why do you want to be outraged?

There's a lot of stuff I want to know about that I don't know where else to find out about it, and much of this is outraging. For example, a lot of my Twitter feed is people pointing out how the Canadian media misrepresents events with a pro-conservative bias. Perhaps ignorance would be bliss, but I opt for a daily dose of poison to keep my tolerance up.
Post reply on HN