Quitting social media

I should start this discussion by saying the only social media account I have is on Twitter. I've never been on Facebook or Instagram or Snapfluff or Knucklefish or whatever. But I was a pretty hardcore Twitter user, close to an addict.

After the Texas shooting, I was really grossed out by the idiocy on there, and the pointlessness of it, and I decided to give myself a break from Twitter for the rest of November, a kind of test. I can say with all honesty that I logged off whenever I said I was going to log off, and I haven't looked at it.

(I should also say a couple of close friends left Twitter and seemed thankful for it. Their chorus was in my ear.)

ANYWAY, it's only been a couple of days, but I already feel better. My actual life is probably as good as it's ever been, but Twitter was making it seem like everything is awful. (Maybe everything is awful and now I'm just ignoring that it is.) Either way, I feel like I'm at the start of a colonic cleanse. It's also amazing how much more time I have in the day (to spend here). I think this is going to stick.

Of course, I said that once before, after taking a break when that poor reporter was shot on live TV and Twitter autoplayed the video. A few weeks later, I returned.

Anyone else quit social media and feel better? Feel worse? Tried to break and couldn't? I'm curious to know if I'm just in the post-divorce honeymoon phase, WHICH I KNOW A LITTLE SOMETHING ABOUT.

Seriously, though.

 

I'm on twitter, facebook, and instagram.
I'll check twitter a couple of times a day........facebook maybe once a week, and instagram very rarely.

 

I quit Facebook in 2012 and haven't missed it once. I left Twitter once I was no longer a sports editor and have a burner account and check the feed once a day for five minutes. I then banish myself from the place the rest of the day.

You don't realize the anxiety a Twitter feed can artificially create until you leave.

If Twitter was what it was in about 2009 or 2010, I'd consider being active again. It was really fun and the news accounts were like having your very own personalized AP wire. Weird Twitter was like having your favorite stand-ups performing at all times of day. Now it's just mechanized outrage and anxiety.

 

I think it's changed, too. I don't remember it making me miserable when I first got on there, probably around 2009. But now enough shit somehow invades your feed that you can't avoid it. Plus Trump has made everyone crazy.

 

Facebook is my only outlet. It's way more peaceful than Twitter or anything else, but I'm sure that's due to my self-regulation of it -- I drop out of feeds and friends that are going to cause me a lot of grief. With others we've settled on a sometimes uneasy truce that begins with "no politics." I'm not perfect about that, but I do wait a few hours before posting something political to think about whether this one is meaningful enough.

I like keeping up with my old hometown and with my siblings' kids, my parents' friends, etc. I wouldn't know about any of that. So it serves my needs. Also, importantly, I work from home and it's a social outlet I need during the day.

Twitter, Snapchat and the rest are garbage. Facebook is a more personal connection for me. I still hold that one in a different category despite all the news about Russian bots and the election. However, my wife hasn't signed on in years, and every time I tell her about something happening there, it affirms her decision.

 

On twitter, pretty much to follow a couple of friends who still cover sports and also for updates from a few breweries. On instagram to see updates from breweries and maybe look at some pictures. Never had FB, but sometimes look at Mrs. page.

 

Didn't you write this about SJ.com when you quit here for awhile?

 

I honestly don't know. Maybe? I did quit here for a while because it was bumming me out. That lasted a few years, I would guess.

My interest in this place fell when my interest in Twitter rose, and it's gone the other way now. I'm a little like @LongTimeListener, in that I work from home, and I feel like I need a virtual newsroom somehow. But I worry that social media is giving me the illusion of engagement when otherwise I might force myself to go outside or to the gym or even just to the bar for lunch.

PS: I would add that I'm much better than I was about getting worked up here. Still need to work on that, but I used to take things here way too seriously.

 

One thing I love about coming from a family of Luddites is I don't have to keep a Facebook account to keep up with family.

 

I visit Facebook and Twitter regularly throughout most days, with zero issues. I only follow about 300 Twitter accounts, and have about 200 Facebook "friends". I have unfollowed (but not unfriended) a few of my friends and distant family members due to their political BS, left and right, but in general my feeds are quite pleasant and bring many smiles.

Twitter is a great avenue for me to keep track of happenings in areas of interest to me.

If you look for drama, you'll find drama.

 

I just think it goes in cycles.

Of course, a lot fewer people here to call you an asshole than on Twitter.