About a year ago, I tweeted that I would leave Twitter if Trump was reinstated. Well, he has been, so I left.
I’ve been on Twitter for over 15 years now, but I didn’t buy into Twitter as early as I could have. I remember being at a conference years ago, one of the early Rails or Ruby conferences, that had a sign board with instructions for signing up for Twitter. At that time, from your not-smart mobile phone, to send a tweet you had to send a text to some number. I don’t think I was texting at all back then. I never got over the awkwardness of typing words on a number pad. So, I ignored Twitter for a while. I do regret not getting the username tj when I could have. :) When I finally joined, I found the early Twitter community to be right in my wheelhouse - Ruby and Rails folks. It was so cool and I still think fondly on the early days of wishing the fail whale away so I could read my feed.
A couple years back, I read my full Twitter timeline. I don’t remember why I did it, but I do remember being surprised at my takeaway - it’s a pretty faithful representation of who I am. Despite living and working on the web for many years, I don’t have a carefully crafted web presence. My Twitter timeline is the closest thing I’ve got. It sucks to think about losing that. It sucks to think about ignoring the community and friendships that I foster on Twitter.
But I have to weigh those losses against my personal values. There’s no question that people like Donald Trump use divisive speech (to put it mildly), incite violence, and willingly spread misinformation to promote their personal agendas. I simply can’t provide content to a platform that decides that’s okay, and furthermore, uses that content to drive ads and revenue. There’s money in fomenting anger and division, but there’s also a cost and Twitter doesn’t pay that cost, we do as a society. Twitter reaps the rewards without paying the price.
It turns out that Twitter is a perfect vehicle for impulsiveness. I suspect that many people, when they feel a flush of anger or any other strong emotion, habitually grab their phone and express themselves with a pithy, ill-considered tweet. I’ve done it myself and I’ve almost always regretted it. It’s a vicious cycle. Consuming the impulsiveness of others normalizes that style of communication, that way of behaving. It’s easy to get caught up in. And it’s no way to be.
When I’m being my best self, I’m not acting impulsively, I’m not acting upon every novel emotional surge I feel. I am better when I let impulses fade. I’m better when I act with thoughtfulness, compassion, and empathy. Part of leaving Twitter and reducing my social media usage is simply a move towards being better. I do think it’s possible to use Twitter thoughtfully; it’s just not all that common.
Many thoughtful people have moved to Mastodon. (Here’s the best Tweet about that.) I honestly haven’t looked into Mastodon. Nor have I done thorough research into the universe of Twitter alternatives. I happened to read about a couple folks moving to micro.blog and wanting to use a tool that affords more thoughtful, longer form content, it seems like a good fit. It’s also ad free, based on web standards, and run by a small team whose values seem to be in line with my own.
More and more, I find myself circling back to my indie/punk roots, preferring things that are made by a small, thoughtful teams. I’m weary of rampant corporatism, of unicorns, of venture capitalists, of the hoarding of fake tech wealth (see: FTX, et al.). Mostly I’m glad to be taking a step back from the vicious impulsiveness of Twitter. I hope to see you around on a kinder, more thoughtful web.
