A Farewell to Twitter
I've been on Twitter for a long time, but today I finally closed my account.
This wasn't a decision I made easily. I've learned a lot of good things on Twitter. I've had some good connections start through twitter. A few part time gigs I did back in the day started as Twitter DMs.
But lately I've been doing a little experiment. Every time I let myself look on twitter, I stop when I'm done, and ask myself, “do I feel better or worse than I did when I opened this site?” The answer has been uniformly negative for a long time now.
I've tried to change that. I've stopped following a lot of accounts that were mainly negative, even if the person or entity was one I liked. I've muted just so many accounts, mostly ones that were followed by people I follow, who were harmful to my mental health. I set my “home” to Japan, because I can't read Japanese, thus stopping twitter from showing me news that would further stress me out.
But it's not enough, and in the end I decided it will never be enough. I don't think Twitter can be saved, at least not for me.
Instead I'm focusing on actual people with whom I have actual connections, and on small, intentional online communities.