You're not wrong Robert - it sucks the very life out of us. I too, have dumped Twitter as I can't take all the bile, mostly regurgitated. But now I find I'm subscribed to so many podcasts and channels that I am staying up later and later to watch them, in the vain hope of catching up. I am now determined to take an electronic sabbatical for a month to see if my sanity returns. Heigh ho!
I’ve been feeling really conscious of the lack of proper friendships and community in my life but I hadn’t put that together with the kind of synthetic substitute for those things that Twitter provides. I have had a long period where other kinds of interaction genuinely weren’t really possible for me, and early Twitter was a wonderful and genuine replacement for what I was missing out on. It also led to a lot of other good things, good people, a broadening of my horizons and so on. But it’s not been like that for many many years. I hadn’t thought about how my continued use of it, small though that now is, was probably as you say using a lot of those same muscles that I could instead be using to try and redevelop a social life / community out in the world, now that is once again (theoretically) possible for me. So thank you for this xx
I too now delete far more responses than I ever post. I stopped being triggered by the ignorance of random people quite so OFTEN, a few years ago. I am still trying to gently teach my wife to do the same. It is such a waste of energy and time. For me it took living with a long term health condition to refocus my thoughts. Very easy to get caught up in that nonsense.
I deleted Twitter, rarely post on Facebook or IG and if I have anything to write, it now goes on my substack. Not a plug - just that the Meta privacy stuff also got to be a big deal. Don't bother with other social networks at all. Good luck on the changes!
I call it 'Anti-social media', because there is nothing more annoying than people being antisocial on their phones or whatever when they should be interacting with people in real life.
I love catching up with people over dinner or whatever.
At one stage I really let social media take over my life. So much so I was running back home to speak to people online rather than the people I actually lived with. In part that was admittedly because I was deeply unhappy and sought support outside of the home but thankfully - things have bee rectified. I still enjoy social media but I really limit it. I make sure I live in the moment and only have people on social media I really want. There are in laws and relatives that aren't close to me that I won't have on there because of previous judgements. For my business side of things, it's different. I don't tend to get too involved in anything too topical.
From a selfish point of view I hope you don't disappear as I enjoy reading your posts, but real life so to speak should always come first.
I think you are right. It sucks so much time even though I don't post. Just read about electrification and energy and space and some economy politics. I avoid the comments. It sucks your mind, endless scrolling, paradoxically it prevents thinking. I've cancelled instagram years ago when it was bought by facebook and it seems twitter is next. Pain expected ahead.
Communication is a flexible thing and not tied to any particular medium. However, I find it interesting to read the day to day stuff from history (Vindolanda letters/tablets, Herculaneum papyri) along with the official line set in stone.
The main issue with living in the present is that it is happening right now and all around - not only do we have our own experiences, but online platforms allow us to access others' too, and it can be overwhelming. Knowing when to quit something that has become unhealthy is a difficult point to reach, cigarettes or Xitter alike, since most of the online platforms play the addiction game carefully.
Perhaps that's the one upside of Elon's current demolition job - once we step back from the fray we can see how much is being manipulated. It's notable that I never had to use block or mute (or ask a moderator to step in) more than a handful of times in all of my online world in all the time up to the Titterpocalypse, but hundreds of times since, and that is tiresome. Oddly, I've also seen that same trend on Facebook, from about the same time.
Personally, I have reasons to stay on some that I would otherwise bin -Facebook, for example, has a lot of my family and also friends *that I've actually met*, whereas my TwitteX connections are wider, only some of whom I've actually held a real conversation. I hate the way text-based stuff has pinched all of the terms used for really talking.to someone, but hopefully there's still a clear distinction between talking and typing!
I miss the Kryten account, but I follow you on Bluesky now.
I think it's fairly common for men to not maintain friendships and depend on their wives to make sure that socialising happens. It's a bit of an extra burden on women even if no one involved is very conscious of it.
I despise social media and it's never appealed to me. I prefer the old fashioned online forums where there is at least moderation, and so a more modern version like Reddit is about as far as I'm willing to go. At least with these, you can step away and are not ruled by notifications from all an sundry on a phone- I'm sure it depends on the person and profession of course.
I don't post much original stuff on Twitter but I still enjoy lurking. I think I follow people and accounts with a diverse range of views, which keeps me questioning my own stance on a lot of topics. I've also learnt to walk away and not engage, unless I'm absolutely sure I have something important to contribute.
You're not wrong Robert - it sucks the very life out of us. I too, have dumped Twitter as I can't take all the bile, mostly regurgitated. But now I find I'm subscribed to so many podcasts and channels that I am staying up later and later to watch them, in the vain hope of catching up. I am now determined to take an electronic sabbatical for a month to see if my sanity returns. Heigh ho!
I’ve been feeling really conscious of the lack of proper friendships and community in my life but I hadn’t put that together with the kind of synthetic substitute for those things that Twitter provides. I have had a long period where other kinds of interaction genuinely weren’t really possible for me, and early Twitter was a wonderful and genuine replacement for what I was missing out on. It also led to a lot of other good things, good people, a broadening of my horizons and so on. But it’s not been like that for many many years. I hadn’t thought about how my continued use of it, small though that now is, was probably as you say using a lot of those same muscles that I could instead be using to try and redevelop a social life / community out in the world, now that is once again (theoretically) possible for me. So thank you for this xx
I too now delete far more responses than I ever post. I stopped being triggered by the ignorance of random people quite so OFTEN, a few years ago. I am still trying to gently teach my wife to do the same. It is such a waste of energy and time. For me it took living with a long term health condition to refocus my thoughts. Very easy to get caught up in that nonsense.
I deleted Twitter, rarely post on Facebook or IG and if I have anything to write, it now goes on my substack. Not a plug - just that the Meta privacy stuff also got to be a big deal. Don't bother with other social networks at all. Good luck on the changes!
I call it 'Anti-social media', because there is nothing more annoying than people being antisocial on their phones or whatever when they should be interacting with people in real life.
I love catching up with people over dinner or whatever.
At one stage I really let social media take over my life. So much so I was running back home to speak to people online rather than the people I actually lived with. In part that was admittedly because I was deeply unhappy and sought support outside of the home but thankfully - things have bee rectified. I still enjoy social media but I really limit it. I make sure I live in the moment and only have people on social media I really want. There are in laws and relatives that aren't close to me that I won't have on there because of previous judgements. For my business side of things, it's different. I don't tend to get too involved in anything too topical.
From a selfish point of view I hope you don't disappear as I enjoy reading your posts, but real life so to speak should always come first.
I think you are right. It sucks so much time even though I don't post. Just read about electrification and energy and space and some economy politics. I avoid the comments. It sucks your mind, endless scrolling, paradoxically it prevents thinking. I've cancelled instagram years ago when it was bought by facebook and it seems twitter is next. Pain expected ahead.
Communication is a flexible thing and not tied to any particular medium. However, I find it interesting to read the day to day stuff from history (Vindolanda letters/tablets, Herculaneum papyri) along with the official line set in stone.
The main issue with living in the present is that it is happening right now and all around - not only do we have our own experiences, but online platforms allow us to access others' too, and it can be overwhelming. Knowing when to quit something that has become unhealthy is a difficult point to reach, cigarettes or Xitter alike, since most of the online platforms play the addiction game carefully.
Perhaps that's the one upside of Elon's current demolition job - once we step back from the fray we can see how much is being manipulated. It's notable that I never had to use block or mute (or ask a moderator to step in) more than a handful of times in all of my online world in all the time up to the Titterpocalypse, but hundreds of times since, and that is tiresome. Oddly, I've also seen that same trend on Facebook, from about the same time.
Personally, I have reasons to stay on some that I would otherwise bin -Facebook, for example, has a lot of my family and also friends *that I've actually met*, whereas my TwitteX connections are wider, only some of whom I've actually held a real conversation. I hate the way text-based stuff has pinched all of the terms used for really talking.to someone, but hopefully there's still a clear distinction between talking and typing!
I miss the Kryten account, but I follow you on Bluesky now.
I think it's fairly common for men to not maintain friendships and depend on their wives to make sure that socialising happens. It's a bit of an extra burden on women even if no one involved is very conscious of it.
I despise social media and it's never appealed to me. I prefer the old fashioned online forums where there is at least moderation, and so a more modern version like Reddit is about as far as I'm willing to go. At least with these, you can step away and are not ruled by notifications from all an sundry on a phone- I'm sure it depends on the person and profession of course.
I don't post much original stuff on Twitter but I still enjoy lurking. I think I follow people and accounts with a diverse range of views, which keeps me questioning my own stance on a lot of topics. I've also learnt to walk away and not engage, unless I'm absolutely sure I have something important to contribute.