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Quitting Twitter

blog.nindalf.com

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Re: Quitting Twitter

#251

Post by rgoulter »

jonnycomputer wrote: post #243
BalinKing wrote: post #235

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That is demonstrably false—tweets about, say, programming language theory are pretty far from politics.

Have you seen the arguments about progamming language design here on HN? (: Its not apolitical, just pettier politics

An example given upthread was wanting to follow an account which tweeted interesting facts about medieval history, and being uninterested in seeing the same tweeter's thoughts about current US politics.

The sense in which people flame each other on HN about programming language opinions can be described as 'political', but it's also not directly related to e.g. current US politics.

Re: Quitting Twitter

#252

Post by kodah »

> How does a reasonable, good person end up warped like this, where they assume that every person out there is a bad faith actor? Where there’s absolutely no scope for disagreement? My theory is that Twitter warps people in this way, by simply removing any scope for reasoned discussion. When you only meet trolls, and never have any friendly discussion with different viewpoints, you assume that a person disagreeing with you is a troll.

Also, nothing sells like negativity and sadness. It's highly engaging material. In my opinion they're just selling the same old goods. The only difference is that the cost of goods is now you.

Re: Quitting Twitter

#253

Post by brailsafe »

Pro tip for anyone considering doing this but for some reason haven't pulled the trigger: use the "t" cli to backup all your seemingly important stuff, then unfollow everyone and/or deactivate your account. It's like putting your old crap in a sealed bag and dumping it in a storage locker. If it occurs to you to go through the effort of opening it, then go for it. Otherwise nature takes its course.

fwiw, Twitter actually has an awesome offline archive of your data available, so you can download that before deactivating your account and have a perfect replica of the interface to browse through it all.

Re: Quitting Twitter

#254

Post by justhw »

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…

Thanks for that. Awareness and introspection as you just demonstrated are key for a toxic free life.

Re: Quitting Twitter

#255

Post by dmix »

PragmaticPulp wrote: post #225
dmix wrote: post #169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I'd rather it be political or everything else...

I shouldn't have made it a hashtag.

Re: Quitting Twitter

#256

Post by DyslexicAtheist »

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 find that tweets of people I like start going on my nerves based on how much I see of them. people overshare because they're posting both great content but also a lot of half-baked opinions that even they themselves are still not sure about and in the process of testing out on their audience.

on one hand it's exciting to see the thought process of another person (who often doesn't realize they're giving you an alpha-preview release of their latest brain farts). But it gets tedious quickly.

I got constantly sucked into discussions in the past simply because it's too easy to hold myself back. Now I consume twitter without an account either using nitter or directly browsing some good lists of people I used to follow.

Re: Quitting Twitter

#257

Post by dmix »

Raed667 wrote: post #203
dmix wrote: post #169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

> a-political there is no such thing

When browsing Twitter it certainly is. I think it's a terrible form to engage in politics.

Re: Quitting Twitter

#258

Post by dmix »

rgoulter wrote: post #251
jonnycomputer wrote: post #243

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have you seen the arguments about progamming language design here on HN? (: Its not apolitical, just pettier politics

An example given upthread was wanting to follow an account which tweeted interesting facts about medieval history, and being uninterested in seeing the same tweeter's thoughts about current US politics. The sense in which people flame each other on HN about programming language opinions can be described as 'political', but it's also not directly related to e.g. current US politics.

Exactly, my point wasn't some hashtag filter. But some new checkmark that this may be political [or controversial or start a flamewar] etc.

Sometimes people like starting one with warning, I see it all the time. I don't see how Twitter can't create a simple filter like that.

I could go through all my tweets and instantly choose which category it goes in.

Re: Quitting Twitter

#259

Post by dmix »

iujjkfjdkkdkf wrote: post #220
dmix wrote: post #169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

I think even if Twitter made it easier to tag posts as political, the problem remains that so many people feel like their political views belong everywhere, and will actively try and break into other discussions to interject with politics. Like the Expensify guy who thought it was appropriate to email customers and tell them who to vote for. To me it comes back to the trend that people who support a cause treat it as…

One problem at a time.

I think politics are work, when you're company is anything but small is nasty and taboo. And IMO a fireable offence when it gets to any level of harassing others for not sharing your opinion.

There are times and places for certain things and I strongly believe work isn't one for politics. Unless the work itself is directly political.

I've shared this opinion before on HN and had strong support, so I know I'm not alone. Especially among the introverts.

Re: Quitting Twitter

#260

Post by idownvoted »

Twitter is the mother of all rabbit holes. Even the best threads don’t justify opening this portal to hell just to feel used, abused and filthy after 5 min using it.

No matter what the topic, it turns peer groups into toxic waste.

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