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Quitting Twitter

blog.nindalf.com

221–230 of 292 posts

Re: Quitting Twitter

#221
I'm always confused how certain people, who I just wouldn't expect, get these followings in the 10s of thousands of followers.

The most recent head-scratcher was a SDE who has less than a year experience and nothing particularly interesting to offer the community (that I could tell) but has 16k followers and pretty high engagement (lots of comments, retweets etc...).

I'd love to know how people think about this.

Re: Quitting Twitter

#222

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.

Some bubbles aren't echo chambers. If you only follow people who agree with you that math is cool, or that the majestic octopus is the best animal, maybe that's a bubble where you'll learn tons of new stuff.

Maybe google+ was right all along. Publish this to the octopus circle, publish that to the math circle, and this other thing to the politics circle.

Re: Quitting Twitter

#223

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 on…

I think the calculated dynamics bit got to me as well - I’m almost certain (esp. from reading others’ experiences) that items that you need show up less frequently in the marketplace when you need them. So those nails that were so easy to find 10 minutes ago are suddenly super scarce when you’ve got some buildings that actually need them.

So you think “oh I just saw those!” And keep spinning the slot machine wheels of the marketplace. And then when they DO finally appear, that little dopamine hit is all the sweeter :)

Re: Quitting Twitter

#224

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?

The idea isn't to unfollow people you disagree with. The point is to curate your follow list to contain the type of content you want to see.

I enjoy reading different viewpoints, as long as they're presented in good faith and with a willingness to discuss them openly. I still follow a lot of people I disagree with.

I've also followed a lot of people with whom I agree, but I don't want to consume their endless Twitter dogma about the subject.

Shape the feed to the content you want to consume. If you want to consume healthy debate and alternate viewpoints, curate accordingly. The idea that the only way to break an information bubble is to let low-quality arguments from the other side flood your timeline is not true.

Re: Quitting Twitter

#225
post #169

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…

Twitter allows you to mute keywords: https://help.twitter.com/en/using-twitter/advanced-twitter-m...

It's not perfect, but muting key words like the names of a few popular political figures, names of political parties, and names of hotbutton issues will drastically decrease the amount of political content in your timeline.

Re: Quitting Twitter

#226
post #223

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 on…

I think the calculated dynamics bit got to me as well - I’m almost certain (esp. from reading others’ experiences) that items that you need show up less frequently in the marketplace when you need them. So those nails that were so easy to find 10 minutes ago are suddenly super scarce when you’ve got some buildings that actually need them. So you think “oh I just saw those!” And keep spinning the slot machine wheels o…

> show up less frequently in the marketplace when you need them

I see this alleged all the time, but a part of me is convinced that it's a trick of the mind. But I don't know, and that's what's frustrating. Even if they don't pull the rug out from you, they could do so at any time and I'd never know it. Not great!

Re: Quitting Twitter

#227

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 have the same approach. I'll add that the "desactivate retweets" function is also very useful.

Re: Quitting Twitter

#228

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’…

This is the right way - what you see constantly will eventually program you a certain way. If you want to be a troll-y sarcastic person, make sure you see lots of tweets like that. Want to be a person who constantly dunks on the success of others, make sure you have lots of tweets to read like that.

Don't want to be that kind of person? Better make sure you are not consuming that kind of stuff. It starts to come out unconsciously if you are not careful.

Re: Quitting Twitter

#229
This article reminds me of another article on HN a few days back about "kids bullying is about climbing up their social hierarchy" or something. I think the same thing can be said to Twitter; for many (including this OP), it's about climbing up whatever social positioning that the Twitter space provides.

I don't really understand that kind of use of Twitter. For me, it is always a personal echo chamber that I hang out with a couple of like-minded people. I've never followed "famous" people, and I tweet in the same way as I post on HN... it's mostly just a monologue or "note to self" that is aimed at pretty much no one but myself. Naturally I don't have any addiction problem with Twitter or HN.

Re: Quitting Twitter

#230
post #214

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not. I don't have to rely on Twitter's algo to pump irrelevant crap, replies, etc. I don't have to scroll an infinite feed. I just check the influencers that I care about, to get whatever they posted that day. I don't need to see all the noise. It takes me 15-20 minutes a day to catch up and then I move on.

You don't have to do that anyway. Just set your feed to "latest" and there's no algorithm besides "when did this appear on the timeline of someone you follow?"

I don't want to keep a Twitter account. I don't want notifications when someone retweets or whatever. I just don't mess with it. I don't want the temptation to respond. I don't want some new feature from Twitter interrupting my flow. The point is to check on the people I care about hearing from and ignore all else. Anyways, you do you, this works for me.
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