So, I quit Twitter. I think for good this time! Of course, the cricket bat that broke the camel’s back was the completed acquisition by Apartheid Clyde aka Phoney Stark aka Elon “Proud Transphobe” Musk, but the process of emotionally disconnecting from this one particular social media platform was a long time coming.
To be honest, I probably spent about three hours per day (at least) on twitter, which is a lot. I knew that there were far better uses of my time than endlessly scrolling a firehouse of outrage and firing off half-baked missives out to the ether, but I did it anyway, which I’m pretty sure meets the clinical criteria for addiction. To mitigate the negative impacts on my social media addiction I used various tools like app blockers and even unplugging my wifi router. (It’s how I wrote my first book—in 20-minute, wifi-less chunks.) But last week I signed out and deleted the app.
I also recently read three books that really underscored how my quality of life could be better without the constant interruptions, anger, fear, shame and envy that comes from chronic social media use. The first was Hungry, by Eve Turow-Paul, then The Shame Machine, by Cathy O’Neil, and then Stolen Focus, by Johann Hari.
Hungry is a fascinating, deeply-sourced book that explores with the intersection of food culture, social media, mental health (isolation and loneliness particularly), and our disconnection from meaningful work. Another interesting aspect of the book is that it came out right at the beginning of the pandemic so it feels like it was written a century ago, even though it describes a world that is almost identical to ours is, ie. 2019. And if anything, the pandemic accelerated everything that she describes in the book, so it’s oddly prescient.
The Shame Machine is a relatively quick read that lays out the idea that social media (and by extension capitalism) thrive on shame and how many platforms are literally designed to maximize our shame, so that we spend more. And by spend, I mean literally spend money on products (weight loss, skincare, clothing) or spend time on the platforms, which in turn generates revenue for the platform.
Finally, and my clear favorite of the three is Stolen Focus, which is delightfully readable and strikes an amazing balance of personal narrative (he goes to Provincetown and lives without the internet for three months and instead reads books and checks out hot guys) and top-shelf journalism that finds him crisscrossing the globe to deeply probe the idea that our lack of attention is actually a public health crisis in the same vein as smoking, obesity, and structural oppression, and that our decimated attention spans are not an inevitable consequence of modernization and there are real ways to push back. It’s gloom-and-doom but also robustly optimistic and motivating.
So, yeah, twitter was (on balance) bad for me so I stopped. I think the main reason is that by continuing to spend time on the site and provide product (ie content to sell to advertisers) to the platform, I would be complicit in whatever oppressive bullshit the new owner has planned, and I’d rather not be a part of that. I will miss it. I do grieve for the moments where I can fire off a quick question and get an answer, or post something deranged and have it go semi-viral. I will also miss keeping up to date with people who I enjoy hearing from.
I have gotten work from my twitter posts, but I wonder—as I did in my very first newsletter—if I took the total time spent on twitter and instead spent it on developing pitches, writing recipes, and networking individually, I would find more success than via the casino of social media.
That said, I am loving all the pieces that are coming out about what a jackass musk is, like, this one, this one, and this one.
For now, you can find me on Tumblr (they’re allowing nudity again), Instagram, and Mastadon (which I am trying out but not sold 100% on yet.)
And who knows, maybe we’ll nationalize twitter and I can come back. But in the meantime there is a twitter-shaped void in my life that I hope I can create my way out of.
Speaking of creating, my creation, Proteau, is going away at the end of the year. If you want to read all about why, please click here. And a purchase is super helpful as the company still has bills to pay!
And speaking of buying things, my next book, Saved By The Bellini is officially available for pre order! It will be released on April 25, 2023 and presale numbers are a great way to signal to my publisher that there is excitement for the book. And everyone should be excited because the book is very good…if I do say so myself.
Thanks for reading! Please forward this to someone you like. (And remember that every image is a link, so please click on all of them.)
Love,
-JdB
