I quit Twitter and, as I promised on Saturday, I’m here to tell you all about it.
The one thing is, you’ll have to read about it on Forbes, if that’s OK. When my Forbes editor got wind of my experiment, she thought it’d fit perfectly in the tech and self-improvement section.
Quitting Twitter was extremely difficult for me. I had no idea how much I’d allowed it to become a part of my routine and social life. I was an early adopter, though you wouldn’t know it by my odd handle, @laureninspace. Though @laurenorsini was available, I was still in that mindset that you needed a quirky moniker for Internet sites, never guessing that Twitter would get as big as it did.
In the seven years I’ve been using it, it has become not only my news gathering and networking tool, but a performance platform where I try to entertain and make jokes and otherwise validate my existence. Somewhere along the way, I forgot how to eat a meal without taking a picture of it first. That’s what this week away was about—re-discovering the state of my analog life.
Would you dare to quit Twitter, even for a day or two?
5 Comments.
Lately, I haven’t bothered with social media all that much. I do go to Facebook to browse, but I don’t interact as much as I used to because everyone just posts videos and photos that I don’t care about. Twitter is more my thing, but I don’t obsess over it as much as I used to. I do kinda blame the “corporate lifestyle” that I’m in for that, but honestly, there are times where I just ignore my smartphone.
I don’t have as many followers as you do, but there are times where I don’t care about that high number. All that matters is a few of them. I don’t think you should feel jealous about sports fans sharing photos/tweets while at a game. They’re going to be forgotten sooner or later. I’ll admit I’ll do it, but I don’t want to check all the time. Those people probably have a lot of stress going on in their lives, so I guess whatever works for them.
Social media is generally a waste of time. I know businesses use it, but I think they want to limit its usage because there’s still a lot of junk out there.
@MangaTherapy:disqus I have been on Twitter once today just to sate my curiosity. Even though I no longer feel the pull to be there longer, I can’t call it a waste of time. It’s CRAZY how there’s this platform at our fingertips where we can keep in touch at every hour of the day!
That said, hanging out with you face to face is way more fun. I remember those times more than any tweet conversations we’ve had.
Well, I know how my parents and people who want to contact others overseas feel (especially in Asian countries). The only thing that worries me about social media is companies using it for ad data (which I can’t blame them for) – though it reminds me of the big ad-block battle going on.
Of course, it’s more funnnnnnnnnn. You said it yourself – online can’t replace a physical connection.
I never used Facebook at all, and Twitter didn’t cut it for me either. I made an account and followed people I liked, but I don’t feel comfortable asking for validation on my daily life. I mean, I still liked eating mint chocolate Ice cream, even if I didn’t tell Twitter a word about it.
Also, about what you said about your webinar: I actually feel things matter more that way. When I take my time to enter this particular blog and not check some feed or twiter update, it’s because I really want to be here. On the same way, if I spam my blog through Twitter long enough, people will obviously check it out, but that doesn’t mean they care about it or like it. The best pages I know I haven’t found on social media, but by recomendations or by myself.
After reading your article, I quit Twitter and Instagram as well. Twitter because, well, I don’ tweet, and Instagram because I found myself doing that same “check it first thing in the morning and end up losing about 10 hours a week on it”. Let’s see how it goes from now on.
Oh! Great article on Forbes, and great webinar as well!
[…] Twitter is where I spend most of my online hours, even after I tapered back my involvement after this experiment. I have 5,600 followers and Twitter says my tweets get 200,000 impressions a month, so I can see […]