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I effectively shut down my Twitter account a while ago, best thing I did for my mental health in the past year. There are interesting people on Twitter but the

I effectively shut down my Twitter account a while ago, best thing I did for my mental health in the past year. There are interesting people on Twitter but the algorithm just works like a slot machine that tries to keep you on the site no matter the cost, it's not optimized to serve you but to make you view more ads. In addition it's almost impossible to have a civilized discussion, it often feels more like two people standing in different corners of a public space screaming insults at each other, and various crowds cheering them on.

bambax 4y ago
> There are interesting people on Twitter but the algorithm just works like a slot machine that tries to keep you on the site no matter the cost, it's not optimized to serve you but to make you view more ads. Yes. I don't know if it wants us to see more ads or be more "engaged". I'm currently fascinated by generative art and find a lot of interesting posts about this on Twitter. Yet Twitter keeps showing me posts about politics that upset me; I can't help but "liking" some of those, which feeds the feedback machine. I never follow any political poster but liking is enough. I could certainly block or mute all of them but that feels wrong, esp. people I fundamentally agree with. I'm not sure what to do. Not use Twitter seems the best solution.
- bobiny 4y ago
  I tried Twitter many times but always stopped using it after reading a lot of upsetting materials. Like you follow favorite musician and beside music announcements, there are political rants. I returned to Twitter when I learned to use Mute function liberally. Maybe in your case, you'd feel better on more art related sites like Tumblr or DeviantArt?
- elsjaako 4y ago
  Have you seen https://genart.social/ https://genart.social/? Unfortunataly it looks like registration is closed right now. You could follow users you like using RSS and join when registrations open again, or maybe someone you know on twitter has an account there can send you an invite. You can also create an account on any mastodon server and follow users from genart.social, but it's more fun to be in the middle of it.
- gwd 4y ago
  > I never follow any political poster but liking is enough. I suspect that clicking, or perhaps even pausing is enough. The only time I look at Twitter is when running my organization's Twitter account. I try to follow technical people and organizations, and am mostly looking for something of a pulse on what's going on in the Linux / FLOSS crowd on Twitter. Since I'm representing my project, not myself, I never click 'like' on anything political; and I'm pretty sure my predecessor in the role never did either. And yet, here I am every day, wading through loads of political posts which mysteriously mostly align with my preferences. Edited for clarity.
te_chris 4y ago
It’s the “x who you followed liked this” that did me in. Turns out a lot of the smart people I followed followed complete tools. Twitter gave me no options to ignore, so I just deleted instead.
- msravi 4y ago
  There is a "block" and a "mute" function.
  - te_chris 4y ago
    So force the user to block and mute users they never followed in the first place? No.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
- recuter 4y ago
  Never e-meet your heroes I suppose. But you know, your mind is your own, you can just literally ignore or make peace with parts of reality you find unpleasant. It seems quite strange to me how people clamor for push button blinders on what is actual life. You are not a horse to be led around by an app.
  - te_chris 4y ago
    What a pretentious response. Bad art exists, twitter showing people you don’t follow in your feed is bad software art. Who needs blinders when the feature could just work? Follow someone; see them. Don’t follow; don’t see.
    - recuter 4y ago
      > a lot of the smart people I followed followed complete tools There is no technological solution to this. It isn't bad software art. Sometimes life is disappointing. Maybe I like Harry Potter and enjoy fan fiction of a certain flavor on twitter and follow the author only to discover she doesn't share my politics (via her tweets and retweets). That is not the fault of Twitter. Well, if I didn't find certain views held by JK Rowling's disagreeable everything would actually be working as it should and there would be no complaints. You can't pick and choose only the things you like about the people you are interested in. Having those books in common doesn't guarantee fellow fans are agreeable - same thing would happen if I were to attend a book reading in the olden days before twitter and overhear people expressing views that upset me. I can of course demand everybody at the venue accommodate me on everything since we all enjoy Harry Potter and I am very special but that might not fly. I could compartmentalize and stick to the the things we have in common. Or I could excuse myself.
msravi 4y ago
> but the algorithm just works like a slot machine I'm always surprised that people, especially on HN, complain so much about twitter's algorithms that are so easy to bypass. I use Twidere as a client, and my feed doesn't have any of twitter's algorithms - it's simply a reverse chronological feed. Even the website and twitter's official app have a button right on the feed page that allows you to switch to a reverse chronological feed > In addition it's almost impossible to have a civilized discussion Just don't use it for discussion then. I use it to read opinions of people all across the ideological spectrum and form my own. You don't need to engage if you don't want to! Also, it's very easy to mute/block accounts that you find are being abusive or uncivilized It's an invaluable tool to gather peoples' opinions and what they really think.
- mola 4y ago
  But then you only get opinions of those ppl that engage in the sort of "discussions" OP talks about. You really aren't exposed to real ppl opinions, only the opinions of the most crazy and or manipulative.
  - msravi 4y ago
    Actually I've seen that if you're following accounts that get on average a few hundreds-low thousands of RTs/likes (vs 10s of thousands of RTs/likes), the discussions are pretty good. They're also easy to quickly scan and follow and are most likely real opinions of real people.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
- WA 4y ago
  Or just use lists. Create list, add people you want to follow. Bam, done. Reverse chronological order with zero ads.
- prawn 4y ago
  Another option is https://tweetdeck.twitter.com/ https://tweetdeck.twitter.com/ with an ad blocker. No ads, feed in order. I mostly follow people I know and my feed is very decent and for the most part positive. To see the loons, I typically have to find a popular account and read replies, and the Tweetdeck URL even hides most of those (which is fine by me - makes me realising I'm wasting my life reading rubbish).
bobiny 4y ago
I find Twitter teaching me to stand my ground in terms of my boundaries and what I enjoy. If I talk to somebody and they start insulting me, I mute. I mute people who insult others too. Difference between physical public space is that if some people are screaming at each other, you'd have to engage somehow (like break them off) or disengage by walking away. In Twitter you can mute them. Let them fight between themselves.
deepzn 4y ago
Exactly, since 2016, it's been a cesspit. One can argue the world would be better off without Twitter, even keeping in mind The Arab Spring, and during Covid outbreak (was that net positive? I would say initially during the outbreak it was very useful, and then later more misinformation came about.)
rrwo 4y ago
> In addition it's almost impossible to have a civilized discussion, it often feels more like two people standing in different corners of a public space screaming insults at each other, and various crowds cheering them on. It's depressing seeing friends fall down conspiracy theory rabbit holes, or publicly wallow in their racism.
disqard 4y ago
Good analogies! It also kinda follows from your "public space" analogy, that the loudest people screaming the most obnoxious and entertaining insults, will dominate this space. Extending your analogy a bit further, this "public space" is really more of a "public bathroom" wall, where people scribble hot takes, and others react to those with more hot takes of their own. I'm happy for you that you shut down your account a while ago -- I haven't used mine in months, and should probably do the same right now.
mmargerum 4y ago
Twitter is the least taxing of the social media sites to use and I actually get useful info from it. Just curate who you follow to keep the SNR up. I don't have any other social media accounts. The rest is just trash

bambax 4y ago

> There are interesting people on Twitter but the algorithm just works like a slot machine that tries to keep you on the site no matter the cost, it's not optimized to serve you but to make you view more ads. Yes. I don't know if it wants us to see more ads or be more "engaged". I'm currently fascinated by generative art and find a lot of interesting posts about this on Twitter. Yet Twitter keeps showing me posts about politics that upset me; I can't help but "liking" some of those, which feeds the feedback machine. I never follow any political poster but liking is enough. I could certainly block or mute all of them but that feels wrong, esp. people I fundamentally agree with. I'm not sure what to do. Not use Twitter seems the best solution.

bobiny 4y ago
I tried Twitter many times but always stopped using it after reading a lot of upsetting materials. Like you follow favorite musician and beside music announcements, there are political rants. I returned to Twitter when I learned to use Mute function liberally. Maybe in your case, you'd feel better on more art related sites like Tumblr or DeviantArt?
elsjaako 4y ago
Have you seen https://genart.social/ https://genart.social/? Unfortunataly it looks like registration is closed right now. You could follow users you like using RSS and join when registrations open again, or maybe someone you know on twitter has an account there can send you an invite. You can also create an account on any mastodon server and follow users from genart.social, but it's more fun to be in the middle of it.
gwd 4y ago
> I never follow any political poster but liking is enough. I suspect that clicking, or perhaps even pausing is enough. The only time I look at Twitter is when running my organization's Twitter account. I try to follow technical people and organizations, and am mostly looking for something of a pulse on what's going on in the Linux / FLOSS crowd on Twitter. Since I'm representing my project, not myself, I never click 'like' on anything political; and I'm pretty sure my predecessor in the role never did either. And yet, here I am every day, wading through loads of political posts which mysteriously mostly align with my preferences. Edited for clarity.

te_chris 4y ago

It’s the “x who you followed liked this” that did me in. Turns out a lot of the smart people I followed followed complete tools. Twitter gave me no options to ignore, so I just deleted instead.

msravi 4y ago
There is a "block" and a "mute" function.
- te_chris 4y ago
  So force the user to block and mute users they never followed in the first place? No.
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
recuter 4y ago
Never e-meet your heroes I suppose. But you know, your mind is your own, you can just literally ignore or make peace with parts of reality you find unpleasant. It seems quite strange to me how people clamor for push button blinders on what is actual life. You are not a horse to be led around by an app.
- te_chris 4y ago
  What a pretentious response. Bad art exists, twitter showing people you don’t follow in your feed is bad software art. Who needs blinders when the feature could just work? Follow someone; see them. Don’t follow; don’t see.
  - recuter 4y ago
    > a lot of the smart people I followed followed complete tools There is no technological solution to this. It isn't bad software art. Sometimes life is disappointing. Maybe I like Harry Potter and enjoy fan fiction of a certain flavor on twitter and follow the author only to discover she doesn't share my politics (via her tweets and retweets). That is not the fault of Twitter. Well, if I didn't find certain views held by JK Rowling's disagreeable everything would actually be working as it should and there would be no complaints. You can't pick and choose only the things you like about the people you are interested in. Having those books in common doesn't guarantee fellow fans are agreeable - same thing would happen if I were to attend a book reading in the olden days before twitter and overhear people expressing views that upset me. I can of course demand everybody at the venue accommodate me on everything since we all enjoy Harry Potter and I am very special but that might not fly. I could compartmentalize and stick to the the things we have in common. Or I could excuse myself.

msravi 4y ago

> but the algorithm just works like a slot machine I'm always surprised that people, especially on HN, complain so much about twitter's algorithms that are so easy to bypass. I use Twidere as a client, and my feed doesn't have any of twitter's algorithms - it's simply a reverse chronological feed. Even the website and twitter's official app have a button right on the feed page that allows you to switch to a reverse chronological feed > In addition it's almost impossible to have a civilized discussion Just don't use it for discussion then. I use it to read opinions of people all across the ideological spectrum and form my own. You don't need to engage if you don't want to! Also, it's very easy to mute/block accounts that you find are being abusive or uncivilized It's an invaluable tool to gather peoples' opinions and what they really think.

mola 4y ago
But then you only get opinions of those ppl that engage in the sort of "discussions" OP talks about. You really aren't exposed to real ppl opinions, only the opinions of the most crazy and or manipulative.
- msravi 4y ago
  Actually I've seen that if you're following accounts that get on average a few hundreds-low thousands of RTs/likes (vs 10s of thousands of RTs/likes), the discussions are pretty good. They're also easy to quickly scan and follow and are most likely real opinions of real people.
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
WA 4y ago
Or just use lists. Create list, add people you want to follow. Bam, done. Reverse chronological order with zero ads.
prawn 4y ago
Another option is https://tweetdeck.twitter.com/ https://tweetdeck.twitter.com/ with an ad blocker. No ads, feed in order. I mostly follow people I know and my feed is very decent and for the most part positive. To see the loons, I typically have to find a popular account and read replies, and the Tweetdeck URL even hides most of those (which is fine by me - makes me realising I'm wasting my life reading rubbish).

bobiny 4y ago

I find Twitter teaching me to stand my ground in terms of my boundaries and what I enjoy. If I talk to somebody and they start insulting me, I mute. I mute people who insult others too. Difference between physical public space is that if some people are screaming at each other, you'd have to engage somehow (like break them off) or disengage by walking away. In Twitter you can mute them. Let them fight between themselves.

deepzn 4y ago

Exactly, since 2016, it's been a cesspit. One can argue the world would be better off without Twitter, even keeping in mind The Arab Spring, and during Covid outbreak (was that net positive? I would say initially during the outbreak it was very useful, and then later more misinformation came about.)

rrwo 4y ago

> In addition it's almost impossible to have a civilized discussion, it often feels more like two people standing in different corners of a public space screaming insults at each other, and various crowds cheering them on. It's depressing seeing friends fall down conspiracy theory rabbit holes, or publicly wallow in their racism.

disqard 4y ago

Good analogies! It also kinda follows from your "public space" analogy, that the loudest people screaming the most obnoxious and entertaining insults, will dominate this space. Extending your analogy a bit further, this "public space" is really more of a "public bathroom" wall, where people scribble hot takes, and others react to those with more hot takes of their own. I'm happy for you that you shut down your account a while ago -- I haven't used mine in months, and should probably do the same right now.

mmargerum 4y ago

Twitter is the least taxing of the social media sites to use and I actually get useful info from it. Just curate who you follow to keep the SNR up. I don't have any other social media accounts. The rest is just trash