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I quit Twitter for a month and it changed my thinking about mostly everything.
- crotalo 14y agointeresting
- stephengillie 14y agoSocial experiences lend us to distribute the computing of our problems to those other humans around us. We naturally store problems we can't solve, then reach out for additional processing power when others are near. It's an expression of love, in that we can probably leave with positive net calories after the problem is solved. In a sense, you're renting out your head for distributed computing without charging anything. You're like Folding@Home for your friends' lives.
- qu4z-2 14y agoI guess the trick is to be careful about what you compute. Helping your friend compute that infinite loop doesn't help anyone.
- stephengillie 14y agoWhat if what you're computing is the fact that it's an infinite loop, and that's why this friend finds you so valuable? We all subsidize each other in different ways with different currencies.
- maxerickson 14y agoIt's kind of scary how many stupid self perpetuating behaviors there are. Stuff like angry driving (where aggressive maneuvers make other drivers angry, and so on).
- timc3 14y agoOver the last two or three months I have forgotten to read who I am following in Twitter, and its great. I sometimes post because it triggers other services for me but I recommend giving up twitter for a month to see how it feels.
- pclark 14y agoI quit tweeting for a few weeks and I noticed zero difference. I was actually kind of disappointed given how much everyone talks about how we're "addicted" to social media.
- jgrahamc 14y agoIt sounds like it was a good idea for this person to disconnect from Twitter if reading and processing tweets was taking up that much space in his head. It sounds like it was pretty unhealthy for him and that he was somewhat obsessed with being involved in some way with what people were tweeting. That's not been my experience of Twitter, but then I only follow 32 accounts (most of which are companies) and I've never felt like I missed out by not reading their tweets.
- danso 14y agoI don't know if quitting twitter would change me much, as I usually just use it for tweeting and not following news. But quitting FB for a couple of weeks almost had a profound change. Wen you are forced to just stand and think while you're waiting for takeout, instead of making the quick check of the newsfeed, or sending time thinking about how to wittily caption a photo...you end up thinking about different things...I started to just sketch and draw more with all the spare uninterrupted minutes I had.
- deleted 14y ago[deleted]
- calinet6 14y agoI never started Twitter, so I guess I'm already good. Seriously, this is good general advice. We should all try to take breaks from our digital addictions (you know you have them). I highly recommend camping. Total disconnection and reconnection to nature all at once!
- deleted 14y ago[deleted]
- Tichy 14y agoI logged out of Hacker News for a month recently, and also part of the time out of Twitter and Facebook. I was still allowed to read HN, just not to comment, as the latter tends to waste the most time. What I have come to feel is that my use of the internet is mostly driven by rage - and it seems to be similar for a lot of people. On HN I waste time trying to correct people who will never in a million years be swayed by a random internet comment. On Twitter the problem for me is not the noise - it is being able to rant at any given time. Whenever something upsets me, I can immediately tweet about it, which will amplify the emotions. The better alternative is to simply not get upset about things so much. Being logged out really helped a lot, because sometimes the urge to correct was really strong. Obviously it is the strongest when reading the wrongest opinions, which are also held by people the least likely to change their opinion. Double waste of time. Edit: I don't just rant on my Twitter account, but ranting is the most wasteful use of my time, hence the emphasis.
- Osmium 14y ago> I was still allowed to read HN, just not to comment, as the latter tends to waste the most time. I'm going through the opposite: I read HN for years, but never commented, mostly because I found if you wait long enough someone will eventually say what you were going to say anyway. But then I realised the reason I came to HN was for the quality of the comment threads, and thought why not contribute? I'm still undecided as to whether this was the right decision.
- alaaibrahim 14y ago> if you wait long enough someone will eventually say what you were going to say anyway. And you just said what I wanted to say. :-)
- deleted 14y ago[deleted]
- debacle 14y agoRanting is a terrible disease, but bitching can be incredibly cathartic. HN is good for ranting, but Twitter and FB are superior for bitching.
- ChrisArchitect 14y agotwitter is just another venue for information consumption that previously was more generally the web/blogs etc for me. So cutting it off is not about cutting off access to tweets etc but cutting off the flow of information and access to global goings-on that I am verrry accustomed to now. Sure it might free you up to do other things, but for many of us now it's just part of life - the constant flow of information and being in it. And I'm of the part of the Millennial generation that only got internet in later years -- just think where the youth of today would stand on this
- psycho 14y agoWell, it's so interesting that Twitter is so mind changing - maybe I should start using it after all? But in fact, no, thanks, Facebook is quite enough for now, I guess.
- mmhd 14y agoI closed my Twitter account a few months ago and my thinking and doing has never been clearer. Not to mention, the complete disappearance of anxiety often brought on by social media websites.
- recursive 14y agoI've had a twitter account for many years, but I never check it more than once in a given week. I'm sure there have been 6 month spans where I didn't use it at all.
- meanJim 14y agoIf you ever get stressed out or unmotivated... Spend some days without technology, your mobile phone, your social networks, even SMS and you'll notice some clarity. Like the old saying goes: Too much of a good thing can be a bad thing.
- thefsb 14y agoisn't this basically what Jaron Lanier was getting at in You Are Not a Gadget?
- spodek 14y agoI was nervous to leave Facebook but when I did I found leaving Facebook easy and fun -- http://joshuaspodek.com/leaving-facebook-easy-and-fun http://joshuaspodek.com/leaving-facebook-easy-and-fun. I had read others say the biggest surprise about leaving was that you don't miss it. Using it is addictive but not using it doesn't leave any holes in your life. Leaving Twitter sounds easy and fun too. When I first started with Friendster I thought it was fun. Facebook seemed fun too. Until the company got creepy and I realized centralized social media companies are locked in an arms race to get as much of your personal data as they could with as little accountability as they can get away with. So I left to avoid doing business with creepy companies. But I found life was better without them. Mine anyway. I hold out hope for Diaspora as non-centralized so you own your data, but I'm not sure how much social media helps my life.
- gknoy 14y agoIt might not be Facebook itself, but the overwhelming firehose of constant updates from your friends and family, combined with the knowledge that you CANNOT (should not?) use it for venting frustration or anger at the times when you most want to -- because the people you are likely wanting to vent about are your friends or family. ;-) (Well, that and the tinfoil-hat aspect of not wanting to post anything For Posterity that isn't completely sanitized.)
- bluetshirt 14y agoEveryone I know who's left facebook - EVERYONE I know who's left facebook - has come crawling back. In most cases it's because they're tired of being left in the dark about events. So as to whether or not it leaves "holes in your life", I guess that depends how you feel about sitting alone at home while your friends are out skiing, watching movies, or catching a show.
- SyneRyder 14y agoYep, I've left Facebook several times and Event listings (and the list of who is attending) are always what drags me back. But that's just a network effect - if those listings were elsewhere, I wouldn't need to return. Someone really needs to make an events app where identity is tied to Twitter / AppDotNet / Email instead. And while you're at it, connect to my Last.FM & Rdio so you can suggest/predict events for me based on my musical taste as well as my interests & friends network.
- chipsy 14y agoI don't feel this at all, but do I think it's easy to cultivate your way into a corner with opt-in social media, especially if you come at it from an "industry" angle where you're following a lot of people stuck in the same echo chamber with little diversity in their messaging. In fact I deliberately counter that by diluting my stream with lots of people of minor interest, or people writing in languages I don't know, so that the timeline is big and noisy and nobody's voice comes off as being particularly loud(if they are outrageously spammy I do tend to drop them though). Over 1000 followed now. Yes, there's a subset that I care more about, but I don't try to lock it down. The point is that it goes both ways; I will use Twitter to say relatively less interesting/valuable things if I perceive it as a smaller thing than it is.
- xyzzyb 14y agoJust about any change can have this effect as long as you perceive the change to be significant.
- acqq 14y agoWhat I still don't understand is how people who use Twitter use it at all? I mean, you can't give much information in 140 chars. So I guess most people post links. Now, if they post links, more than that, shortened links, the only way to follow people is to click on every 140 char message. Which means you don't read, you click and click and you don't even know what you're supposed to get before you click. It's hard to understand for me that people actually do this regularly and why do they bother to actually "follow" the tweets? Can anybody explain me what's that that I don't understand?
- addlepate 14y agoAre you sure people actually use Twitter according to the model of usage you have derived using only the maximum number of characters in a tweet? (They don't.) I'm actually not a fan of the 140 limit, but you can fit a joke in there. You can do multiple tweets in a row. Most tweets aren't links. Links that do get posted are shortened, true, but through a bit of cleverness the original URL is preserved. People get creative, because that's what people do. If you don't want to use Twitter, that's certainly understandable. But this distanced reasoning about it, like Twitter is some giant hiding in the woods, it's very strange.
- edwardunknown 14y agoI use it as a super wire service, I follow thousands of news organizations organized by lists, it's pretty cool for news junkies and journalists. I never tweet anything though, I don't see the point.
- icebraining 14y ago140 characters is enough for a title and a link; is it really that different from "following" the HN front page?
- Evbn 14y agoHN has voting. Twitter is more like the New page on HN on reddit, which are horrible.
- thanithani 14y agoEverything in moderation.
- mrtunes 14y agohere's a tip for you: because twitter will delete your account if you deactivate it for more than a month, you can use a strong password generator to lock yourself out of the account to try taking a break.
- aprescott 14y agoThe best part of this is of course the piece of generic template at the bottom. :) If you want to read about what I've learned about the software business, leadership, and team-building, follow me on Twitter.
- cpeterso 14y agoIs this overload feeling a side-effect or a design feature? Companies like Twitter and Facebook want you to spend more time on their websites, but is there a way to design a system that supports more healthful or effective social interaction and media consumption?
- dasmith 14y agoWhat's the consequence of quitting twitter for a month? Making a blog post that's 88.5 tweets long (12,387ch/140).
- deleted 14y ago[deleted]
- shizzy0 14y agoLOL. Good one.
- mixmastamyk 14y agoThis post has a lot in common with the previous one about focusing on one thing. There is a lot of noise in the world, and I'm happiest when I can turn it all off.
- rjempson 14y agoI've quit Twitter 'forever': It dawned on me one day that my real friends are far more interesting and polite. I was tired of reading people's complaints and general drivel. I was tired of taking time to respond to people and getting no interaction. I was tired of making jokes that fell flat. Sometimes with responses like "I don't even know what that means". I think the key being that people don't know you, or your personality, and can't see your face, so they don't get your humour. They simply aren't your friends. In summary, it is a frustrating tedious time sink.
- mxxx 14y agoBrilliant, another blog post where somebody tells us how amazing the world is once you stop using social networks and start interacting with people "real world" in "real ways". Here's a news flash for you, dude, people have been doing that since the dawn of time. The idea that you should just talk with people face to face is nothing new and you're not doing anything remarkable. Generally I'd just ignore a post like this, but they seem to be increasing in frequency.
- xk_id 14y agoThanks for writing such a valuable contribution. I've learned a lot.
- monochromatic 14y ago> It’s important to note that, for me, there wasn’t some trigger event. In a snap decision, I just had this feeling that came to me the second I walked in the door one evening—it was kind of a voice saying, “yep, done for now.” I did this exact thing with reddit recently. I'd been on reddit almost since the first day it existed, and I was kind of addicted. Woke up one morning and went "you know, I could just delete my account." Before I gave myself time to think about it, it was done.
- at-fates-hands 14y agoI learned a few years ago social media can be like any addiction and moderation is always the best philosophy. I had every social media property you could imagine. Then, I realized a large portion of my day was spent following, commenting and chasing the latest fad. I decided to completely unplug for about six months. I still have facebook and twitter. Facebook for my high school buddies and Twitter just for posting my random thoughts. I only check them once a day and post maybe a few times a week. It helps to keep a low dosage approach so when you need to step away, you can do it without thinking you're missing something. I've always liked the idea of having to post something worthwhile at HN. It takes out a lot of the cruft you have to sift through and makes it easier to actually enjoy the conversations and insights I get here.
- xk_id 14y agoThere is a quote in this clip http://youtu.be/gQ3HEVelBFY?t=4m7s http://youtu.be/gQ3HEVelBFY?t=4m7s which goes: "we have to shift from long sequential thinking, to short parallel thinking". I think that because computers have permeated our lifes so much, they are enabling a new pattern of dynamic adjustment to the world around us. The article didn't persuade me this new pattern is unworkable – I believe focus is still attainable, it just requires a more complex kind of management. Edit: nevermind, I think my comment is almost completely offtopic.
- bpatrianakos 14y agoReally? This is really that much of a problem for people? I'm a developer/techie person/nerd same as everyone else here and I just could never understand the whole Facebook/Twitter thing. If I do use it it's basically to talk to myself and just as a tool for self-expression (which is why I created http://writeapp.me http://writeapp.me for myself). I never much did or enjoyed talking with others on Facebook and could never quite make any connections with Twitter folks (Twitter just moves way too fast for me). Why is it that once you're done communicating with whoever you can't just leave it? I'm honestly asking. To me, this sort of thing is as mysterious and foreign as video game addiction. I just don't get it and I feel kind of odd that I don't which is weird. It's almost like you're not normal unless you can't stop using social media.
- kh_hk 14y agoMaybe off topic, but also "life changing": RSS If I am not planning on using one or two hours, I read most social sites (subreddits, HN, blogs, ...) using an RSS (it's not dead!) reader. Web sites are built with some features that make the reader spend more time on a site. I think this is a fact people will get sooner or later. Being on a program that let's you skim efficiently through articles makes you an efficient news consumer. Moreover, I can save articles for later, without using my already too-much packed bookmark section on my browser. As for twitter, I have never used it too much for social purposes. It helps me reach more people that might be interested in my product (so, yes, another one of these shouting voices there). Not that my story would be relevant, or had the number of followers the author has, but going back to using an RSS reader has improved how I use my free time reading news.
- enobrev 14y agoHis conclusion is the reason I generally work evenings and weekends. When I need to work during the day, I can shut off the email, the IM, the social apps, the HN, the Reddit, but they're still buzzing away. When I take a break and open any of them, I suddenly have 1000 new things to become distracted with. At night, all these things simmer down. I couldn't distract myself with the outside world even if I wanted to.
- meej 14y agoI've never quit Twitter for more than a week, but I don't hesitate to unfollow people when I decide I am tired of their tweets, and I don't engage in silly behaviors like following back indiscriminately. I do similar pruning of the RSS feeds I read. For example, I decided to go on a "politics detox" the week before the Republican primary and unfollowed all but one political reporter and unsubbed from all but one political blog. I didn't miss the content at all, and I daresay I was a happier person for it. Anyway, my point is, you don't necessarily have to quit the whole platform, sometimes all you need to do is manage your use of it. Know yourself and know your limits, then adjust accordingly. It seems to me like a lot of people just accept the firehose of input into their lives without considering the impact it will have on them. I always wonder how people who follow hundreds of other accounts keep up with it (well, I guess they're using something like TweetDeck to focus on the accounts they care about most). Interestingly, the number of accounts I follow on Twitter tends to hover around Dunbar's Number.
- ericclemmons 14y agoThis. During the primaries I unfollowed several obnoxious tweeters (all left, since I can't find anyone on the right in the tech sector), and did the same for Facebook. My rule of thumb is, if we interact or you're in my phone book, we stay connected. If not, or you simply generate noise that doesn't help me utilize the platform for my specific needs, then you're removed/filtered. When Facebook isn't used as a public ledger of who you're friends with, there's freedom to use it for productive purposes rather than e-stalking.
- ripperdoc 14y agoIn every social network or social area online I follow, I see people saying these things regularly, along the lines of: "I can't take it here anymore". While I understand and respect it, I think it comes from what importance you put on these services in your life. You control your own mental filter - use it. No point getting upset by what random people on the internet said, and to completely stop using a service seems like an exaggerated response, as these services DO provide value.
- cupcake-unicorn 14y agoWow, this article really hit home. Earlier this year, I remember myself commenting to someone (partially because of his age, I guess) that I was pretty surprised that he didn't have Facebook. A few months later, I found that I was slowly blocking everyone's (read: "friends") posts from showing up on the home page, and only using Facebook as basically a feed to keep up with products and businesses. I made the profile as private as I could (unfortunately the bulk Greasemonkey scrips I found for this were buggy, so i did most of it by hand...). It was a pain, because of Facebook's stupid phone authentication thing, but I managed to set up basically a fake account for linkage and following companies. In this way, I haven't stopped using Facebook. But I don't use it how it's "intended" to be used, and I can sign up for whatever bogus app I want without worrying about my privacy being leaked. It has been fantastic, and I haven't looked back, nor do I want to. What stood out in the article is what he said about being oversensitive. I think social networking is a deathtrap for those who have problems like that - myself being one of them. There are some webcomic artists that I follow who I've seen go down a pretty dangerous path getting overly involved in Twitter - petty comments and stuff made against them, things like that. I see a lot of people spiraling in self destructive behavior using social networks as a medium, and it is so healthy and wonderful for people with those tendencies to stop using them. Another side effect is that it really showed me who my true friends were. I figured that if people "couldn't" communicate with me if I left Facebook (apparently texting or emailing is too "old school"), they weren't worth having as friends. It's really funny that most people I talk to say, "Oh well, you know, I wouldn't be on it, but there are these people that I, like, can't contact any other way." Because apparently these people just have one big Facebook app, with no phone or email attached. Right. My web presence now is basically nothing, and it's a huge sigh of relief. My only complaint is that Facebook has its claws stuck into everything, and making a new account was a real pain. I just marked my old Twitter account private, but will probably have to migrate to a new account at some point in order to use @ replies to clarify things (businesses etc. that I'm following, no personal things). There really needs to be a better way to do this.
- jlees 14y agoOne of the issues I find with Twitter is the increasing amount to which it (like all channels) is used for commercial messages and notifications; when spammy @-replies and stream tweets started outweighing those from genuine people I wanted to interact with, my usage coincidentally dropped. Email's just as bad, no matter how much I unsubscribe my inbox still feels far more full of robots than humans.
- vy8vWJlco 14y ago"I felt completely at peace about it as I deleted all my social media apps off my phone, laptop, and iPad." I had that same feeling when I stopped watching TV and then later, when I switched to GNU/Linux. Both felt like very much like stepping off a treadmill for me.
- LurkingStrnager 14y agoI'm in a state not far off from this myself. I spent several years as a regular , daily member of a few odd chatrooms, before I one day came to the conclusion "That's enough of this" and in effect committed infocide within that network. I found them through idle curiousity, I stayed while I felt connected, times changed the people and push came to shove; I left. Unfortunately, this left a hole that I used to fill with some of that (rather disconnected) social interaction, in spite of the continually degraded quality of such. Some time later I now find myself ignoring a prickly itch to hop back on the networks "just to see what's up", instead vacantly seeking through newsfeeds and abandoning the odd attempt to comment partway through. Not sure why I'm submitting this one, I suppose it to be mildly cathartic, but reading this article has granted an interesting perspective on my own situation, so I suppose sharing that is reason enough. Either way, this is quite enough socializing on the internet for this lurker tonight.
- S_A_P 14y agoI generally dont like the "persuasive essay" type of blog as is presented here. However there are some valid points. I think the key takeaway from this is not so much about quitting Twitter as it is taking a break from the distractions that take away from your family/work/actual life. I remember having an epiphany of sorts when thinking about how my kids would remember me after they get older. I dont want them to remember a man who was more interested in the rectangle in my hand than I was in them. I want them to remember me being fully engaged with them, and being there for them. Twitter/FB/HN arent a problem unless you let them interfere with your life. If you need to take a month off to get that sort of perspective, great. If not then everything in moderation.
- JoeAltmaier 14y agoEasy to say moderation. But may as well counsel an alcoholic or junkie 'moderation!' As an older guy who's seen it all happen, I see zombies walking down the hall, street, mall with their electronic sedatives/stimulants and I see no difference from any stoner. I counsel - drop electronic instant-communications devices entirely from your life - not for a month - for life. What you get is your humanity back.
- Buzaga 14y agoI've left twitter a long time ago, even following ONLY 14 PEOPLE, I can't keep with it, it's a torture to try to keep up with the stream.. Even given that it has always been 14-30 people and it being a 'saner' stream, a simple "skim" on it leads to at least 1h-2h of reading/lurking(tons of links, articles, sorting stuff to read later) main offender: Steve Klabnik, he posts interesting stuff that I'd like to check on, and that's the reason I didn't unfollow him, but it's way too much still Twitter just feels like really, really noisy room...