Tell me again why I’m supposed to care that Twitter is now a smoldering pile of embers? Have you been there at all in the last four years? These questions are rhetorical: it is a horrible, rabid, angry place filled with vitriol and ego, falsehoods and personal attacks, arguments that never resolve, grudges that never exist in actual human dimensions but only in the formless space of the Internet.
Congratulations on moving closer to leaving Twitter! I found your work through the long reads podcasts and am way out here in Chicagoland :). I've always considered Twitter to be the traffic jam of the internet... everyone yelling at each other from the safety of their own cars... not at all how a real conversation would go if everyone was in a room together trying to have an effective conversation. I've tried to get on it twice and just... kinda... failed. It's amazing how much "energy" things take from you even if it doesn't seem like they take that much "time." Quit for good... and once you get past the compulsion to go back you'll be amazed how much more raw energy, ideas, etc. you have :). Much love for you for all that you do!
“Twitter was meant for the hot-blooded, for people who like to be right and who like a fight.” I tried to get back on Twitter last summer after 4 years without it, and got as far as creating an account and profile before feeling like I was going to throw up. I think you just described why I couldn’t go back, even though I know it’s affected my career. Thank you for this great post.
Leah, this is so worthwhile, like all your writing. Maybe it's because I'm older, maybe it's because of my profession for 40+ years (Methodist ministry), maybe it's because I really don't tweet -- maybe once a year? Or maybe it's because I'm the adult child of an alcoholic, and I lived with reckless speech, abusive and confusing speech ruling the home I was brought up in so many days. I don't know the reason, I just know that I've never understood why social media speech should be different than face to face speech -- as if a person, any person was going to have to see the person they’re talking to every day in an office, or on the bus or at your favorite coffee shop? Anyway, this is how I've chosen to live my life. Loved reading your journey about this -- makes me think all the more about the high school vice principals these days, who often encounter students in despair, depression, self-hate, because at 2:00 or 3:00 AM in the morning somebody tweeted or messaged something intensely critical about their personhood. shouldn't be, shouldn't happen. It must be true, what the research of critics of social media are pointing to, the human brain has never been equipped through evolutionary process to deal with constant pelting through psychological personal attacks. We can't stand up under it. And those that do, through becoming even fiercer in their attacks toward others, I just don't know how their humanity could be a force for good. And if not a force for good? Then?
Congratulations on moving closer to leaving Twitter! I found your work through the long reads podcasts and am way out here in Chicagoland :). I've always considered Twitter to be the traffic jam of the internet... everyone yelling at each other from the safety of their own cars... not at all how a real conversation would go if everyone was in a room together trying to have an effective conversation. I've tried to get on it twice and just... kinda... failed. It's amazing how much "energy" things take from you even if it doesn't seem like they take that much "time." Quit for good... and once you get past the compulsion to go back you'll be amazed how much more raw energy, ideas, etc. you have :). Much love for you for all that you do!
“Twitter was meant for the hot-blooded, for people who like to be right and who like a fight.” I tried to get back on Twitter last summer after 4 years without it, and got as far as creating an account and profile before feeling like I was going to throw up. I think you just described why I couldn’t go back, even though I know it’s affected my career. Thank you for this great post.
Leah, this is so worthwhile, like all your writing. Maybe it's because I'm older, maybe it's because of my profession for 40+ years (Methodist ministry), maybe it's because I really don't tweet -- maybe once a year? Or maybe it's because I'm the adult child of an alcoholic, and I lived with reckless speech, abusive and confusing speech ruling the home I was brought up in so many days. I don't know the reason, I just know that I've never understood why social media speech should be different than face to face speech -- as if a person, any person was going to have to see the person they’re talking to every day in an office, or on the bus or at your favorite coffee shop? Anyway, this is how I've chosen to live my life. Loved reading your journey about this -- makes me think all the more about the high school vice principals these days, who often encounter students in despair, depression, self-hate, because at 2:00 or 3:00 AM in the morning somebody tweeted or messaged something intensely critical about their personhood. shouldn't be, shouldn't happen. It must be true, what the research of critics of social media are pointing to, the human brain has never been equipped through evolutionary process to deal with constant pelting through psychological personal attacks. We can't stand up under it. And those that do, through becoming even fiercer in their attacks toward others, I just don't know how their humanity could be a force for good. And if not a force for good? Then?