Terminating Twitter

I deactivated my Twitter account this week. They give you a 30-day grace period to change your mind before it's permanently deleted, so May 25 will be the day I toast the fun I had on Twitter, looking forward to all the hours I'll be spending on other stuff going forward.

I've been thinking of dumping Twitter for quite a while, and the news of Elon Musk's buyout attempt on Monday Felt like a good excuse to just do it. People assumed that was my reason for leaving, even though I never said so, but that's OK. I couldn't care less who owns it, or what their policies are.

I'll be posting more photos on Instagram now, and we're still posting dog photos on Jamie's Facebook page as well.

When I left Facebook, I just wanted to get more of my time back. And in hindsight, the 18 months after that were pretty productive for me. I left Microsoft and landed a job at Google, we got a puppy (Nancy) and moved from Seattle to Butte, Montana, etc. Will 2022/2023 be similarly productive time for me? I hope so, we'll see.

In addition to freeing up time, I also felt a need to get off Twitter because I didn't agree with much of what I was seeing there, and it's not a scene I wanted to be a part of any more. I met some great people on Twitter, and I'm looking forward to keeping in touch with many of them, but I don't need to be on Twitter to do that. And when people talk about “fighting oppression” on Twitter I just don’t know what to say. Sitting on your couch tweeting to like-minded friends is the exact opposite of fighting against oppression. Every petty thug or tyrant in the world should wish for people to spend more time on Twitter, where they aren't making a meaningful difference in the world.

My experience of Instagram has been that it's mostly about sharing fun photos and stories. Maybe that's just a result of who I happen to follow there, but whatever the reason I enjoy the lack of virtuous braying and whiny hand-wringing about white people's problems, so that's where I'll be hanging out for now. Hope to see you there!