3 ms·

The alternative to Twitter -- and all social media -- stares us in the face: don't use it at all. I know some people find it hard to believe but abandoning all

The alternative to Twitter -- and all social media -- stares us in the face: don't use it at all. I know some people find it hard to believe but abandoning all of those pointless and toxic social media platforms won't leave you less informed or connected. Your question seems like asking for a different kind of sharp stick to poke your eyes out with. Alternatively don't poke your eyes at all.

armatav 4y ago
Exactly - is an hour of your time worth more to you when you use it on your own terms, or when an app takes it from you and donates it to advertisers under the guise of "interesting content"?
nathias 4y ago
twitter, much like most of the internet is as good as you make it
- garbagetime 4y ago
  Yep, it's never been toxic for me, and certainly isn't useless.
- gregjor 4y ago
  I don't agree. Twitter (and all social media) involve interacting with all kinds of people, and just a few of them can make it terrible, completely outside of your control. You can stay and fight by blocking or arguing or whatever, or just do something else. Balancing what little value I ever got from Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, etc. -- all of which I have used, sometimes for years -- against the waste of time and anger and frustration, the trolls and sociopaths, the nonsense and lies, I decided not participating in those fake town squares and social clubs would reduce my stress and wasted time without any downside. And I don't have to worry about how my personal information or reading habits or social interactions get harvested, aggregated, sold, and ultimately used against me.
  - misnome 4y ago
    Read-only, only linear timeline for people you follow, don’t read the replies. This… isn’t hard?
    - gregjor 4y ago
      I didn't say I quit because I found it hard to follow or read. I just never came across anything of interest on social media that I didn't hear about some other way. I don't have any interest in following celebrities or "experts." Anyone I care to have a conversation with I can reach by phone or email. I was on Twitter for five years, LinkedIn since it started (quit two years ago), Facebook on and off for several years, Instagram for a while. I thought I would get useful information, job leads, and stay connected to my family and friends. Instead I got a lot of useless but seemingly urgent "news," endless spam and friend requests from people I don't know, and had to witness multiple fights about politics and religion and social issues that wouldn't have even started in person. I learned about bizarre conspiracy theories I wouldn't have known about, and got some strong opinions about things like gun ownership, gay and trans rights, and immigrants, but I can't say that any of that added to my life. I have a friend who follows people like Sam Harris and tells me all the time what so-and-so expert had to say about some social or political issue. So what? How does what Sam Harris (or any "public intellectual" or "expert") thinks or says affect me, really? If I valued repeating what I read on Twitter to other people to make myself feel smarter or better-informed, or if I cared what Elon Musk had to say from his bathroom this morning, I would spend my time on social media I suppose.
      - sshine 4y ago
        Some much less noisier channels for expert insight are tech talks and podcasts. You can select the expert, the subject, and have a respectful monologue/dialogue.
        gregjor 4y ago
        I agree about talks and podcasts. I have found some useful material on YouTube, but I ignore the comments. I can also read books, magazine articles, book reviews, and web sites that don't have long comment threads that quickly spiral into meaningless arguments and toxic behavior.
beezlewax 4y ago
I've never used twitter and don't intend to.
Ambolia 4y ago
Currently Twitter is an intra-elite coordination system. So you may not be using Twitter, but Twitter may end up "using" you. I live in a pretty irrelevant second-rate country, and even here stuff from Twitter ends up in the news, or in the law in a couple of months. I am not saying that using Twitter is the way to escape this, but going to the park won't save you from it either. And even if you don't use it, it's important to know the impact of those platforms.
- gregjor 4y ago
  I don't know what "intra-elite coordination system" means, but it probably doesn't concern me. I know stuff from Twitter gets on the news and maybe affects what some people do, but mostly the controversies that erupt on social media have to do with the social media platforms. The biggest thing that ever happened on Twitter (which somehow contributed to Musk buying it) was Trump getting banned. That led to all kinds of earnest and serious-seeming "conversations" and "debates" about free speech and public squares and all that, but in the end what Trump tweeted all day long amounted to nonsense. Just like following what Kanye or the Kardashians do, it seems to mean something, it seems important, but think about it and all you have is spectacle and celebrity worship and gossip. Social media gives us a firehose of pseudo-events, spectacles that seem to mean something but don't. They occur only to get reported on and liked or repeated in the same social media sphere. Daniel Boorstin describes that phenomenon -- which predates social media -- in his book The Image: A Guide to Pseudo-Events in America. Read that instead of Twitter or Facebook to learn how pointless and manipulative social media has become in our culture. That some people may find nuggets of value here or there in the dumpster fire doesn't make it a good thing.
  - cbeach 4y ago
    I think you’re downplaying the significance of a private company in the West banning the democratically elected leader of the free world from reaching his supporters … while simultaneously allowing the Taliban to use the platform. Something was deeply wrong with the way Twitter was run. Senior Democrats used the platform for years to create hoaxes about Russians helping Trump steal an election. No bans. Then when Republicans do similar in response to an election with very dubious postal voting, those Republicans are banned. And for those claiming Trump incited violence - that’s a distortion of the truth. His last tweet on the platform was a smack down against rightwingers who’d been involved in political violence.

armatav 4y ago

Exactly - is an hour of your time worth more to you when you use it on your own terms, or when an app takes it from you and donates it to advertisers under the guise of "interesting content"?

nathias 4y ago

twitter, much like most of the internet is as good as you make it

garbagetime 4y ago
Yep, it's never been toxic for me, and certainly isn't useless.
gregjor 4y ago
I don't agree. Twitter (and all social media) involve interacting with all kinds of people, and just a few of them can make it terrible, completely outside of your control. You can stay and fight by blocking or arguing or whatever, or just do something else. Balancing what little value I ever got from Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, etc. -- all of which I have used, sometimes for years -- against the waste of time and anger and frustration, the trolls and sociopaths, the nonsense and lies, I decided not participating in those fake town squares and social clubs would reduce my stress and wasted time without any downside. And I don't have to worry about how my personal information or reading habits or social interactions get harvested, aggregated, sold, and ultimately used against me.
- misnome 4y ago
  Read-only, only linear timeline for people you follow, don’t read the replies. This… isn’t hard?
  - gregjor 4y ago
    I didn't say I quit because I found it hard to follow or read. I just never came across anything of interest on social media that I didn't hear about some other way. I don't have any interest in following celebrities or "experts." Anyone I care to have a conversation with I can reach by phone or email. I was on Twitter for five years, LinkedIn since it started (quit two years ago), Facebook on and off for several years, Instagram for a while. I thought I would get useful information, job leads, and stay connected to my family and friends. Instead I got a lot of useless but seemingly urgent "news," endless spam and friend requests from people I don't know, and had to witness multiple fights about politics and religion and social issues that wouldn't have even started in person. I learned about bizarre conspiracy theories I wouldn't have known about, and got some strong opinions about things like gun ownership, gay and trans rights, and immigrants, but I can't say that any of that added to my life. I have a friend who follows people like Sam Harris and tells me all the time what so-and-so expert had to say about some social or political issue. So what? How does what Sam Harris (or any "public intellectual" or "expert") thinks or says affect me, really? If I valued repeating what I read on Twitter to other people to make myself feel smarter or better-informed, or if I cared what Elon Musk had to say from his bathroom this morning, I would spend my time on social media I suppose.
    - sshine 4y ago
      Some much less noisier channels for expert insight are tech talks and podcasts. You can select the expert, the subject, and have a respectful monologue/dialogue.
      - gregjor 4y ago
        I agree about talks and podcasts. I have found some useful material on YouTube, but I ignore the comments. I can also read books, magazine articles, book reviews, and web sites that don't have long comment threads that quickly spiral into meaningless arguments and toxic behavior.

beezlewax 4y ago

I've never used twitter and don't intend to.

Ambolia 4y ago

Currently Twitter is an intra-elite coordination system. So you may not be using Twitter, but Twitter may end up "using" you. I live in a pretty irrelevant second-rate country, and even here stuff from Twitter ends up in the news, or in the law in a couple of months. I am not saying that using Twitter is the way to escape this, but going to the park won't save you from it either. And even if you don't use it, it's important to know the impact of those platforms.

gregjor 4y ago
I don't know what "intra-elite coordination system" means, but it probably doesn't concern me. I know stuff from Twitter gets on the news and maybe affects what some people do, but mostly the controversies that erupt on social media have to do with the social media platforms. The biggest thing that ever happened on Twitter (which somehow contributed to Musk buying it) was Trump getting banned. That led to all kinds of earnest and serious-seeming "conversations" and "debates" about free speech and public squares and all that, but in the end what Trump tweeted all day long amounted to nonsense. Just like following what Kanye or the Kardashians do, it seems to mean something, it seems important, but think about it and all you have is spectacle and celebrity worship and gossip. Social media gives us a firehose of pseudo-events, spectacles that seem to mean something but don't. They occur only to get reported on and liked or repeated in the same social media sphere. Daniel Boorstin describes that phenomenon -- which predates social media -- in his book The Image: A Guide to Pseudo-Events in America. Read that instead of Twitter or Facebook to learn how pointless and manipulative social media has become in our culture. That some people may find nuggets of value here or there in the dumpster fire doesn't make it a good thing.
- cbeach 4y ago
  I think you’re downplaying the significance of a private company in the West banning the democratically elected leader of the free world from reaching his supporters … while simultaneously allowing the Taliban to use the platform. Something was deeply wrong with the way Twitter was run. Senior Democrats used the platform for years to create hoaxes about Russians helping Trump steal an election. No bans. Then when Republicans do similar in response to an election with very dubious postal voting, those Republicans are banned. And for those claiming Trump incited violence - that’s a distortion of the truth. His last tweet on the platform was a smack down against rightwingers who’d been involved in political violence.