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I’m a Twitter Quitter
🕑 Added 2019-02-26 20:48:19 +0000 UTCIt’s now been two months since I quit Twitter.
I’ve known for a while now that my use of Twitter wasn’t very healthy. Like pretty much everyone, I was addicted to my smartphone and could spend hours glued to Twitter. I wasn’t happy with how much time I was spending (and, for the most part, wasting) on the platform.
But on top of that, I realised that I was no longer enjoying the app. What used to be a fun place to drop jokes and start conversations was now a place of arguments, toxicity, and the worst dregs of the internet.
I hated how mobs of self-righteous people would get together to ruin peoples lives over stupid jokes. I hated how my innocuous tweets would be skewed and intentionally misread, and used to start arguments. I hated how trolls would stalk me for days, sending toxic tweets in my direction because I champion progressive values.
I was spending lots of time on a website I hated. That was stupid, so I had to quit. I had to break my addiction.
I’ve tried before, but it never stuck. So I had to find a new approach. I had to figure out what I actually liked from Twitter and find suitable replacements. For example.
I use Twitter to tweet my videos and streams, and communicate with GMTK viewers.
This was hard, as it meant I couldn’t do a clean break. I couldn’t delete my account. Instead, I used the filters on Tweetbot to hide everything on my timeline - but keep my mentions and DMs intact. Now I can tweet and read stuff sent to me, but I can’t see the endless deluge of new tweets.
I use Twitter to keep up to date with the news
For this, I simply bookmarked websites like Eurogamer (for games), BBC (for other news), and other places to keep me abreast of what’s happening in the world. I also use an app called Nuzzel which shows me the most-tweeted links across the people I’m following. Now I can see what’s hot that day, without actually going to Twitter.
I can use Twitter to waste 10 minutes
Problem is, 10 minutes would often turn into 40 minutes. But still, Twitter’s a good thing to check when I’m waiting for someone, or on a train. Now I look at Reddit if I want to waste a few minutes - or, preferably, read a book if I’ve got more time to spend.
Twitter’s a good way to talk about stuff
Luckily, I’ve got a rather popular YouTube channel. I can also pitch articles (and actually get paid for my opinions) to places like Polygon. And I’ve got Patreon, also.
For a short while, leaving Twitter was tough. I’d instinctively load the app or website. Or think about humorous things I could post. Or think about what I was missing.
But after a few weeks, it went away. And I started to see things differently.
Like, have you ever noticed how all the major social networks are just infinite content hoses. From the infinite scrolling Twitter feed to the eternal recommendations on YouTube. It’s really easy to get sucked into those sites for way longer than you mean to.
(See also: free-to-play mobile games that never end)
But now, all of my sites are finite. When I go to Eurogamer, there’s just a few new articles. I check out the ones I’m interested in and then… well, I’m done with the website. And I guess I have to do something else now! I’d forgotten what it was like for a website to just end.
I also now have to evaluate news stories myself. On social media, stories come prepackaged like “OMG I can’t believe this…” or “This is horrible…” and it’s easy to just have your opinion prepackaged for you. But when you’re reading stuff from a more objective source, you have to read it, decide what you think, and maybe discuss it with people.
But, probably, real people. Nuanced discussion is practically impossible on social media, and whenever I tweeted stuff I would get a deluge of opinions and thoughts from people who I don’t know and don’t care about. I’ve much more enjoyed talking about stuff in person.
I now also see the arguments on Twitter as just squabbling nonsense. When I see news stories that are like “Twitter is up in arms about vegan sausage rolls” or “Everyone on Twitter is angry about Ariana Grande’s tattoo”, it just sounds like the most pointless, petty bullshit. And I’m so glad I don’t have to care, don’t have to formulate an opinion, and don’t have to “weigh in” on the subject.
Critically, I’ve found my attention span returning. Man, my attention span was knackered for a while there. I couldn’t watch a film on Netflix without pausing halfway through to see what was happening on Twitter. I remembered shutting my phone in a drawer and feeling like there was something alive and noisy in there - calling on me to remove it and see what was new.
But now I can get fully invested in stuff again. I was worried I was broken forever, but I’m not. I can sit happily through a movie, fully engrossed in what’s on screen. I can read a book for hours. I can talk to people and focus exclusively on the current conversation. It’s great.
And, finally, I have more free time. I’ve been playing more games, working harder, sorting out future plans for GMTK, reading more books, watching more stuff, starting new hobbies (rock climbing! baking!), and seeing friends and family more. It’s superb.
I’m not going to try and get you to quit. Maybe your relationship to the site is different. Maybe you’re more of a Facebook addict than a Twitter one. But do give it some thought. How much is this thing adding to your life, and how much is it taking away? And could you maybe find the good aspects in a different place?
Cheers
Mark
Comments
Emil Johansen
For news I use RSS and interest groups I generally engage with via chat.
Emil Johansen
When I decided to do the same flavour of “leaving”, my approach was to obviously delete all the apps, but then also add Twitter to the DNS block list of my Safari filter plugin. Couple that with the rule of “you can only engage with that digital tabloid during work lunch”, and the fact that I never really followed a whole lot of people, I quite like the arms length I am able to keep it at.
Well done on sharing your positive changes with social media. I never use Twitter or Facebook but don't think I am missing out. I do spend a lot of time on YouTube and need to cut down. But find more constructive things to do with your time is a key to being happy no brainer. Keep up the brill work!
Game Maker's Toolkit
Still reading DMs!
Thanks for sharing this information. I think it’s great you are taking back control of your life. I have been supporting your Patreon for almost 3 years and I will continue to do so. I was never a donating type of guy but for you I broke my tradition. Just stay focused and continue to make amazing videos with great content and don’t let the world distract you from doing that. But most importantly protect your health.
Matt Glanville
Hey Mark, what's the best way to get in touch with you about a thing we talked about in the past via Twitter DMs? Are you still reading your DMs? (sorry I'm not too sure if you are based on your wording)
Dan Root
Baking's good, right? At the moment we have Souper Sundays, me and the girlf will do homemade soup and homemade bread, and it's soooooo good. Bread baking is bloody brilliant.
GG for quitting ! Recent quitter of FB / Instagram / Twitter and I feel relieved from the notifications & spams from it. For what it's worth, I have replaced it with Mastodon. It's a decentralized Twitter-like, but for now, filled with people that flew away from centralized social networks and toxicity of the mainstream sites. You can use Messenger without a Facebook account if you don't want to leave the app. I decided to contact all the friends and people I care about on Messenger, asking for another way to reach them. 99% had WhatsApp / Telegram / Signal. For the few left, it was either Text Messages or emails. On Android, I am using Wellbeing Dashboard to keep track of how I use my phone. The first time I used it, I was blown away by how many times I would unlock my phone a day (over 300times) without even realizing it, and the amount of notifications a day (over 600). The app allowed me to chose which type of notification I would turn off and I am now down to 60 unlock a day and less than a 100 notifications, mostly messages from my contacts. No more recommandations, promotions, "long time no see" . I started using Do Not Disturb to turn off notifications at work to try to lower it even more. With these few tricks, I feel more productive and more in control of my time on my phone, as I now chose when to use it whereas before, the phone was the one deciding for me.
Congratulations on quitting, Mark! I recently quit Instagram because I found myself just scrolling endlessly/mindlessly and not getting any value out of it. I've been also considering to remove my Facebook account. I've been utterly discussed by all of the scandals around them in the past year (+ the new one about the horrid conditions their moderation teams have to work in), but I haven't found a way out, yet. I have way too many people that I can reach mostly via Messenger and they seem to have locked me in on that. Anyone has any ideas on how I can replace that? Also, Twitter so far has been great for me, but I've specifically limited my follows to designers and game developers. Although, I do catch myself sometimes scrolling through it without any point, too. :/
Mark M
Preach! I've been trying to use twitter less too, and you echo a lot of my thoughts here. Too much drama about things I don't care about. Plus it just seems to turn everyone, even people I like and respect as good people, meaner and snarkier. I've also found myself spending more time actually doing stuff - cooking, delving into games, books. Discord is much better for conversation. I still check it occasionally but find that I have much better alternatives, as you say, so I don't miss it. Definitely feel better overall.
Sia Gholami
Mark, well done. As someone who quit social media pretty much altogether over 7 years ago, I can say it felt great. I also never missed any events, news, people's life updates (that I cared about) and so on. People always think if they leave these social pits of depravity, it will somehow affect them negatively and they will "miss out". It's actually the opposite; you miss out BY using them and deleting all that crap will just make you pay attention to REAL life instead of what ramen an acquaintance you barely know is having today. I commend you and recommend everyone stop using these tools that ultimately are bad for society, as we've recently discovered. My next step is getting rid of messengers like WhatsApp... Should get interesting... (disclaimer, I'm a 30-something working in IT, and not a 70 year old farmer, so it IS possible for us young tech hipsters to achieve this)
I've been trying to wean myself off twitter so I really appreciate some of these tips (I've not got much more sophisticated than hiding the app in my phone)
THANKS
Virak
Thank you for sharing! I took a similar approach to social media and it's helped. Best.
VR-Mindrive
Same here, I haven't read anything you guys post but I read this, cause I've been considering it, so I can focus more on what I want to do, like read what you are putting out. A good article to read even if you have no plans on quitting just to see what may or may not effect you.
I appreciate the timing of this post. I've been questioning the returns, or lack thereof, from my own time-consuming platforms of choice. Seeing this might just be the boost of initiative I need to start putting things back in line.
Jerome Ciarkowski
Oooh, the whole inability-to-watch-a-whole-movie-without-a-phone thing really hit me hard. Looks like it’s time for me to re-prioritize my life and create an actionable goal plan.
Jerome Ciarkowski
Hey, Robert! Probably not my place to ask, but are you happy at your current job? Is Twitter a sort of symptom and solving it is somewhat avoiding the real problem? If not, sorry for jumping the gun—but if so, maybe it’s time to shake life up a bit. Best of luck, my friend!
Kevin Vognar
I put a 10 minute Twitter limit on my phone and I think it helped a lot. Still a lot of room for improvement, though!
Penguinos
This is why I never got into social media in the first place.
Mark, thank you for your post. I'm fighting with my social media addiction but it's getting better and better. I deleted Facebook and Twitter apps from my phone - sometimes I use this platform through the mobile browser on my smartphone but it's so "uncomfortable" that I don't do this very often. I still need to change the way I use social media when I'm in the office, but I see that I'm one the good way. Now I have more time for books, games, learning and my own additional business. Have a nice week, kind regards from Poland :)
I've recently tried to cut down my follows on Twitter to try and better moderate it. I know I really should have a long detox and I think I will as soon as I don't need it for the sake of a project I'm working on (Twitter is currently the only means I have of contacting certain people). But yeah, I will definitely have to use Tweetdeck more to limit how I'm using it.
newyou
This was a good read! I often find myself opening Twitter just to check when I get home from work, only to see 45 minutes fly by that could perhaps have been better spent... I will miss your tweets, but hopefully it means more time for behind the scenes posts like this one! :)
Brainfreeze
I feel this pretty hard. I've had a few different Twitter accounts now after trying to break the connection but finding myself coming back a few weeks later. And those few weeks off usually felt pretty good. The problem is that I have an awful mind-numbing cubicle job and I haven't yet found a better way to keep myself from going crazy during the work day. Podcasts help, but they're too much of a one-way conversation for me to rely on them. It really sucks when I find my phone sucking away my time off work though, and it's something I'm getting better at fighting.
Will Ready
Thanks for your perspective, I recently did this with Reddit and experienced the same withdrawals and, eventually, similar rewards. I've cut some other digital time out of my life, too, and I find that I'm a lot more comfortable with myself day to day. I recommend cutting whatever your "compulsive check" app or site is, at least for a time to get some fresh perspective.
I got rid of my phone for around 5 years, and only last week (for work-related reasons) I bought an iphone again. Hopefully I don't get sucked into this stuff again.
Brian Mullins
I read this and thought to myself, “I really need to quit Reddit. I see all the same things there and it’s a waste of time”. I then closed my mail app and my muscle memory went straight to the Reddit app… I really need to quit Reddit.
Alice
This was a really interesting read! It's definitely making me consider my Twitter usage, and the amount of time I waste on it, mindlessly scrolling... Thanks for the article, Mark!
Emil
Congratulations! That's a hard dopamine cycle to break. When I was using Twitter, it was easy to imagine I'd fall hopelessly behind without it. Perhaps I have, but I also haven't minded.
