A tweetless life
Rediscovering a Twitter-free life, if only for a few days.
Tonight, I watched the first episode of Sherlock on my Apple TV. And ordered pizza from a lovely independent Pizzeria here in Brighton called La Cucina. I also did a whole host of minute things that I would normally have broadcast to my five-thousand-something followers on Twitter in 140 character chunks. The difference tonight was that I didn't.
The A tweetless life article by Aral Balkan, unless otherwise expressly stated, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 2.0 UK: England License.
In fact, earlier today, a tweet I saw from Paul Lloyd was the last drop that made me decide to give Twitter a short break:
Wow! @nicepaul did a lot of freelance work whilst he was working at @clearleft: http://paulannett.com/
Paul Lloyd
paulrobertlloyd
On the face of it, you might wonder why this tweet of the thousands that pass by my stream daily made me decide to stay off of Twitter for while. I think it was the combination of this morning's Twitter frenzy over the FOWD Rising Stars speakers (FOWDgate, which was pretty much over my midday) and the other Twitter-related experiences I've either been seeing or having lately. It does all get a bit intense. I said as much – somewhat ironically – in my tweet to announce my short break from Twitter:
You know what? I've decided to spend the rest of the week off of Twitter. It's too intense. See you all on Monday! :)
Aral Balkan
aral
Twitter has the potential to bring out the best in people (I know quite a number of people who use Twitter to help each other), but it also has the potential to bring out the worst. Nary a day goes by, it seems, without some sort of controversy or scandal erupting on Twitter and then, almost as quickly, withering away to the nothingness from which it came. The Twitter masses are whipped up into a frenzy and then break for lunch or dinner or move on to the next exciting thing, leaving a trail of human damage in its wake.
Reading Paul's tweet, and its accusatory undertones, I decided I just did not want to witness the debate that I assumed would follow. I decided I wasn't entirely fussed if someone on the Internet was wrong. I decided that my world would continue spinning perfectly fine if I didn't get involved in yet another Twitter controversy.
Of course, Paul's tweet was just the drop that made the cup run over – the last thing I'd want is to start a blogversation (see what I did there?) on the specifics.
How I use Twitter
Personally, I love to use the real-time, stream-like nature of Twitter to throw ideas into the stream (most times half-baked, sometimes not) and watch them evolve or die based on the input of others. I love how easily and instantly you can collaborate on ideas via Twitter and also how quickly you have access to different viewpoints and – if you have as lovely a family of followers as I do – to a treasure throve of knowledge.
However, I know that that's not how everyone uses Twitter. And, when you have thousands, if not tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of followers, the way you use Twitter, how your followers view what you say, and the impact your tweets can have changes. An idea you might be debating might get picked up by a news organization and presented as a debate or controversy. It's easy to forget that you're having a public conversation in front of an audience that could easily fill up a stadium (if not several, depending on your follower count).
I don't know how much of this makes sense to you or how much you can emphatize with. These aren't fully baked thoughts either. I'm just throwing them out there and I'll make sense of them later. (See, I can tell you that in a blog post and you can adjust your expectations accordingly because my thoughts are not flying about in semi-disjointed packets of at-most 140 characters, just itching to be taken out of the context of the stream.)
A tweetless life
I haven't tweeted for over four hours now. Well, at least not on Twitter. I have tweeted in my head. And that's actually rather scary when you catch yourself doing it.
Twitter has fundamentally altered how I interact with the world in ways that I don't believe I entirely understand. A part of me wonders how this affects me cognitively: Is it an advantage in much the same way dreams are, helping me reinforce the memories of my actions by being both actively aware of them and in having to review and summarize them? Or does it make me strip the all-important details from my experiences in order to fit them into 140 characters? Am I merely reporting on what I'm doing or has it begun to actually affect what I do?
I've gotten so much into the habit of tweeting that it's my instinct to share nearly everything I'm doing with the thousands of people that follow my tweets daily. I can only stop and ask myself: what does it mean to do that? What sort of a relationship do we have? And how is it impacting my life?
I feel that taking myself off of Twitter for a few days is probably a good way of analyzing that. Not only Twitter but Gowalla and Foursquare also. And I've also turned off all of the various notifications that pop up on my phone. So, at least until Monday, I'm not going to tell you what I'm doing, or where I'm at, or who I'm with. And I have this sneaky suspicion that I will still be doing things and going places and seeing people. And I'm going to try and see what it's like to experience life without sharing nearly every minute of it.
I'll let you know how I get on. At some point.
The A tweetless life article by Aral Balkan, unless otherwise expressly stated, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 2.0 UK: England License.
I’ve been tweeting less and shutting off my twitter client most of the time. In addition to the big scandals and drama, there’s a general level of snarkiness that seems to have crept in. It sometimes tends to become a dumping ground for negativity. Adobe sucks, Apple sucks, Microsoft sucks, Android sucks, AT&T sucks, my boss sucks, my client sucks, my coworkers suck. The checkout guy at the sandwich shop down the street sucks. I get burnt out on it.
I’m sure I’m as guilty as others, but have been making an honest attempt to avoid that kind of stuff, instead posting interesting or funny links, and positive news.
I spent two weeks of July completely off line (traveling) and it was fantastic. Apart from the occasional desire to have instant access to some information I actually needed, I really didn’t miss being off line at all. Enjoy your tweetless time.
Damn you wining sociopath fuktard. Assholes like you are why I dont use twitter…go smoke some crack or something.
I haven’t tweeted in a long while for exactly the same reasons: It’s just a bit too much! My break might be a bit more extended though … Maybe forever, I don’t know …
Loving the irony and wisdom in your comment, fukk :)
Well then, Verena, it’s a good thing you have my number :)
Thanks, Keith – it definitely is the negativity that’s starting to get to me. And the culture of entitlement and “me me me” (again, I’m as guilty as anyone.) Just like you said, I get burnt out on it too.
I really do think you need to take a step back from Twitter and look at what you are doing there. You play out your personal life, your romance and your heartache too intensely and use Twitter as a narration to your soul and sometimes a little too often.
Some of your tweets seem too personal, more the subject of SMS, email or DM and maybe a little too much information sometimes. I have winced many times at the things you have said, especially when I know tweets are merely to get the attention of 1 special person, whilst simultaneously declaring to the greater audience your pain to her. Like a declaration of love to a congregation, fine for a wedding ceremony but a little nauseating for day-to-day life.
You really don’t want to become an object of ridicule I’m sure, but I fear you may have slipped a little in estimations of some. You risk becoming a figure of fun if you continue using Twitter as you have been. Whilst it’s fine to show the world your character and personality, don’t use it as a weapon of love or work interest.
That said, you also broadcast many interesting and useful articles and pieces of information and I’ve personally benefited greatly from some of the things you have lead me to and I thank you for that.
Good move. Give yourself a break and focus on what you want to do and are best at. You’ll be productive and happy.
Twitter can be useful but it can really impact your mind in both a positive and a very negative way. I’m also fed up of reading the opinionated “#fail” tweets and streams of criticism as Keith mentions. People are too negative, have become desensitized and still feel they can say/write things online that they should think about first. We all do it.
You’ve shared some very personal feelings online recently and I know that’s probably helped you in some way. What it has likely also done is open you up to more criticism and pain – for simply being human. Wow, Aral is human!
The truth is that many people “follow” another person without really caring or being interested in that person per se – they just want to trip up or catch out that person.
With any luck, they’ll get bored and drop off the followers list ;-)
Those who care are still around and you know where to find us.
Enjoy your time off!
Awesome, Aral! I stopped tweeting for the last couple of months and had been super productive ever since ;)
Hi Lewis,
Please don’t misunderstand me: I make no apologies whatsoever for how I use Twitter.
The very things that may make you wince and possibly lower your estimation of me are the same things, as Robert also pointed out, that make me human. Make no mistake that I am very aware of the personal feelings that I share on Twitter and that – to me – is what makes Twitter special. I am not a walking Techcrunch RSS feed but a human being. And if you follow me on Twitter, you are following a human being – with all the emotions, hopes, fears, aspirations, etc., that come along with him.
I could easily tweet just useful links or witty banter and display an image of perfection. But that’s exactly the opposite of what I try to do because everything I’m about is about understanding, embracing, and designing for humans. And you cannot design for humans without empathy. You cannot design for humans without considering emotions. And you cannot empathize without being in touch with and your own emotions and understanding their importance.
So, far from being an unintended side-effect or faux pas, I am using Twitter in exactly the manner I intend to. The same goes for my talks. I could easily present a piece of work as “something that I whipped up in a few hours last night” as I’ve seen quite a number of speakers do. Instead, I choose to be honest. To highlight the process. To highlight my fallibility so that that person sitting in the audience understands that I am not Superman. That she can do it too. That it’s all right, normal even, to make mistakes (and that there are no mistakes – that it’s all a learning process).
We are all fallible. We are all emotional creatures. We all feel pain, heartache, joy, wonder, excitement. It’s those things that make us human.
Lewis,
In case the previous comment came off as scathing, it wasn’t meant to be: In fact, thank you for honestly sharing how you see the situation. It so happens that I don’t agree with your assessment (and hence the bulk of my previous comment to explain to you how I view it), but I appreciate your taking the time to write it.
Also, since we’re being honest, the tweets you speak of were not, as you stated, to get a certain someone’s attention. I blocked (a harsh term, but unfortunately the right one) that certain someone’s Twitter account for that very reason: so she _wouldn’t_ see them. A break-up is hard enough as it is without being reminded of it and why would I ever want to make someone I care so deeply about feel worse? (i.e., I feel that your assessment that I was using Twitter as a “weapon of love” is a bit unfair.)
But, first and foremost, thank you for taking the time to share your thoughts and for caring enough to do so.
One of the things I look forward to is the Apple voices fading out across the internet as they all move to read-only platforms like the iPad and the iPhone.
It makes me think of that quote, the one about “If you like the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom, then go home from us in peace…”
I would hardly call the iPhone or iPad read-only. Did you mean to say “consumer” – because the latter does not imply the former.
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