As you know, I left twitter 3 months ago today. I figured it was a good time to do a reflection of my experiences over this time - what I miss, and what I don't miss.
What I don't miss
- Distractions: I find myself more productive, for sure. I never was very disciplined about turning twitter off, so I was constantly distracted. The lack of distraction has been a really good thing.
- Information overload: how did I keep all that stuff in my head? My mind feels a lot quieter.
- Need to share: I'm happy to leave the somewhat narcissistic impulse that Twitter feeds behind.
- Instant answers to questions! And answering people's questions.
- Banter: Twitter is way better for banter than any other medium besides being in person.
- Opportunities for collaboration: it does seem like a lot of that happens now on Twitter and Facebook (which for me is a friends/family only zone) so I'm probably missing out on some of that.
Comments
Great reflection. I'm
Submitted by Jon Stahl (not verified) on
Great reflection. I'm certainly finding the same effects, now that I am over 8 months into my post-Twitter life.
Your last bullet point, about missed opportunities for collaboration, is an interesting one. If we are choosing systems that lead to an outcome where willingness to participate in mentally harmful media such as Twitter/Facebook is a gate to collaborative participation, then that is definitely a sad outcome. I wonder if it will start to show in the quality of collaborative efforts.
You wrote: "Twitter is way
Submitted by J.Wilkes (not verified) on
You wrote: "Twitter is way better for banter than any other medium besides being in person."
I wonder if you ever heard of IRC? If so, I wonder in which ways Twitter could be better for banter than IRC.
On the other items: /me nods.
I've been on IRC since
Submitted by admin (not verified) on
I've been on IRC since forever, like the early 90's. I agree there is a lot to recommend it. I like it a lot. My IRC usage definitely went down when I spent more time on Twitter.
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