I have always been an information and trivia junkie and was an avid quizzer, so used to read magazines, newspapers and then blogs and various websites and eventually social media to get regular feed of information. Blogs and Social media just made it lot more convenient, and with a smart phone it was even easier consume all this information. 7 years back I started using twitter slowly over web and also on phone. After moving to US with much better wifi access and 4G/LTE availability it became really easy to use twitter on phone. It was a treasure trove of information, insight and it was such a fun place initially. conventional media folks and opinion makers were less active. Of course it depends of the people you follow and the conversations they have but initially to me it appeared to be a gentler place with good meaningful conversations, lot of puns and certainly lot of fun. All sorts of topics were covered but it seemed more like extension of the world of blogging. Twitter replaced quickly replaced Facebook for me. Another big plus was people were polite and civil and respected others and courteous in interactions and totally cool guys you admired for their wit, knowledge or their ability to articulate their views and engage in good meaningful debates/discussions. I think I learnt a lot and got exposed to so many ideas and learnt a lot. Then twitter started getting more and more popular and slowly things changed
Lot of celebrities took to twitter with gusto and most journalists also joined in actively, followed by politicians and their followers and almost anyone who is someone. World over major events started getting covered well on twitter with news articles and opinion and discussions. Everyone famous was using twitter to reach out quickly to a huge audience. It totally replaced the newspaper and 'news' programs on TV to get my daily fix of latest news. My Twitter TL was my window to the world and it was always accessible and fitted on my palm (almost). Even though I live in US, majority of my twitter feed was India based or events related to India. So twitter became source for my India news and helped me stay connected to the country and the latest trends and at the same time US and global news as well.
Somewhere around that time lot of things changed, as more and more people joined the quality of discourse dropped as well. From seeking and sharing interesting information, it moved to a platform for spreading and sharing information and setting or controlling opinion. It became a mixture of facts ,opinion, interpretation and the line or difference between both blurred totally. The pull this medium exerts and its appeal is tremendous, I would put it down to combination of how easy it is to voice your viewpoint and no controls or checks and lack of consequence. Trolling and hatred became more common and widespread. Lines were drawn and folks were labelled quickly and people divided themselves into camps. It was like the sorting hat from Harry Potter universe suddenly appeared and divided everyone into clear groups. Instead of meaningful conversation or discussion, trolling, bullying and mob culture took over. Slowly I realized that I had also fallen down the rabbit hole. There was outrage every other day over something or other which no one will remember within a few months and I found myself joining them. This was like those reality shows, with constant fights which no one would even remember later but viewers turn up all the same. It took some time to realize and gradually I think I learnt to come out the 'outrage' trap. Every one had 'expert' opinion on most topics which was ok but they also expected you to agree that what they state is correct and on the other side folks who do not agree not only disagree but display total hatred and anger not just at the opinion but at the person who shared the opinion and anyone who agrees to that opinion. The whole world was getting viewed as black or white and there was absence of nuance or consideration of other view points. I was searching for an apt metaphor or quote to capture this and I found one yesterday in one of the lectures I was listening to in a different context. But it easily applies for all the twitter conversations as well. People use statistics/data just like a drunk uses lamp post, for support rather than illumination
I had a conversation with a cousin about how addictive twitter was and how crazy it has been and we both agreed that pruning the list of folks we follow and trying to keep controversial things like politics will help. Clearly this was no longer the place for me to relax, get information about what was happening around me and get information to improve myself. None of that was happening as most of it was 'shout-fest' or people with extreme opinions. Also it seemed like someone was out there slipping some outrage worthy topics on regular basis and folks just go bat-shit crazy over them and real questions are never come up. Things that really matter and hard conversations never come up. Sure there was good stuff but the hatred and outrage was overwhelming and crowding out the good stuff. Sometime in January 2017, I un-followed lot of folks and also decided to cut the time I spend on twitter. Decided to check it only in the mornings just like how I used to read newspapers back in the days when I used to get daily newspapers and another 30 mins as I hit the bed at night. This arrangement seem to work and during the day the spare time available was channeled to other productive pursuits like reading and studying something useful on Coursera.
After 3 months I realized it did help and I was no longer addicted to twitter and could even contemplate totally leaving it. I did read a lot of books, could finish books at twice the usual speed taken in last 3-4 years. Was able to devote more time for family and successfully completed my first course certificate on coursera. Again exiting twitter or social media totally was never the aim. I do believe this is a very useful medium and you can learn a lot of useful stuff to improve your life as well. Over last 7 years I think my life has benefited a lot from all the information I gleamed off the platform. But fitting it into daily life was a challenge and this way it seemed to be working. Still I did have this question on how would it be if I totally went off social media for a week, just to see if it really matters that much? I could never know because it was impossible for me to resist checking Twitter or even FB during mornings on my phone last 3 months.
And then it happened ... just like that the twitter app on my phone asked me for password. I just did not remember and after couple of failed attempt decided this was a chance for me to take a break from twitter. It has been 5 days now and as of now I don't think I missed anything I have been sleeping okay and this whole week have gone for my morning walk/run without fail. Have also been able to focus enough to update this blog a few times. So hoping to extend this break from all social media (except whatsapp) for another 10 days just to see what happens ...
Update: The break did not extend as long as planned, I got my twitter password issue fixed on 19th, so at least I was out for about 10 days overall. I could get by for while without twitter, but as a side-effect I started using facebook on a daily basis. I used to check FB just once in a couple of months and last 1 week I used that twitter alternative as similar stuff is going there as well with people ranting for and against in various issues. The quality of discussions is much lower than twitter. So eventually I think getting back to twitter is better. But I did un-follow a lot of folks - removed 60 and added a few tech folks who tweet about things of interest to me. Decided not to engage at all on political topics, not because it does not matter. More so because this kind of debates don't interest me any longer as it is reduced to brawls, cheap point scoring, always finding faults and making snide remarks about those whose views/actions you don't agree. Its a good representation of the reality no doubt but for now I will let it go. So aim is to follow and engage with more meaningful topics and lets see if this approach makes any difference
Lot of celebrities took to twitter with gusto and most journalists also joined in actively, followed by politicians and their followers and almost anyone who is someone. World over major events started getting covered well on twitter with news articles and opinion and discussions. Everyone famous was using twitter to reach out quickly to a huge audience. It totally replaced the newspaper and 'news' programs on TV to get my daily fix of latest news. My Twitter TL was my window to the world and it was always accessible and fitted on my palm (almost). Even though I live in US, majority of my twitter feed was India based or events related to India. So twitter became source for my India news and helped me stay connected to the country and the latest trends and at the same time US and global news as well.
Somewhere around that time lot of things changed, as more and more people joined the quality of discourse dropped as well. From seeking and sharing interesting information, it moved to a platform for spreading and sharing information and setting or controlling opinion. It became a mixture of facts ,opinion, interpretation and the line or difference between both blurred totally. The pull this medium exerts and its appeal is tremendous, I would put it down to combination of how easy it is to voice your viewpoint and no controls or checks and lack of consequence. Trolling and hatred became more common and widespread. Lines were drawn and folks were labelled quickly and people divided themselves into camps. It was like the sorting hat from Harry Potter universe suddenly appeared and divided everyone into clear groups. Instead of meaningful conversation or discussion, trolling, bullying and mob culture took over. Slowly I realized that I had also fallen down the rabbit hole. There was outrage every other day over something or other which no one will remember within a few months and I found myself joining them. This was like those reality shows, with constant fights which no one would even remember later but viewers turn up all the same. It took some time to realize and gradually I think I learnt to come out the 'outrage' trap. Every one had 'expert' opinion on most topics which was ok but they also expected you to agree that what they state is correct and on the other side folks who do not agree not only disagree but display total hatred and anger not just at the opinion but at the person who shared the opinion and anyone who agrees to that opinion. The whole world was getting viewed as black or white and there was absence of nuance or consideration of other view points. I was searching for an apt metaphor or quote to capture this and I found one yesterday in one of the lectures I was listening to in a different context. But it easily applies for all the twitter conversations as well. People use statistics/data just like a drunk uses lamp post, for support rather than illumination
I had a conversation with a cousin about how addictive twitter was and how crazy it has been and we both agreed that pruning the list of folks we follow and trying to keep controversial things like politics will help. Clearly this was no longer the place for me to relax, get information about what was happening around me and get information to improve myself. None of that was happening as most of it was 'shout-fest' or people with extreme opinions. Also it seemed like someone was out there slipping some outrage worthy topics on regular basis and folks just go bat-shit crazy over them and real questions are never come up. Things that really matter and hard conversations never come up. Sure there was good stuff but the hatred and outrage was overwhelming and crowding out the good stuff. Sometime in January 2017, I un-followed lot of folks and also decided to cut the time I spend on twitter. Decided to check it only in the mornings just like how I used to read newspapers back in the days when I used to get daily newspapers and another 30 mins as I hit the bed at night. This arrangement seem to work and during the day the spare time available was channeled to other productive pursuits like reading and studying something useful on Coursera.
After 3 months I realized it did help and I was no longer addicted to twitter and could even contemplate totally leaving it. I did read a lot of books, could finish books at twice the usual speed taken in last 3-4 years. Was able to devote more time for family and successfully completed my first course certificate on coursera. Again exiting twitter or social media totally was never the aim. I do believe this is a very useful medium and you can learn a lot of useful stuff to improve your life as well. Over last 7 years I think my life has benefited a lot from all the information I gleamed off the platform. But fitting it into daily life was a challenge and this way it seemed to be working. Still I did have this question on how would it be if I totally went off social media for a week, just to see if it really matters that much? I could never know because it was impossible for me to resist checking Twitter or even FB during mornings on my phone last 3 months.
And then it happened ... just like that the twitter app on my phone asked me for password. I just did not remember and after couple of failed attempt decided this was a chance for me to take a break from twitter. It has been 5 days now and as of now I don't think I missed anything I have been sleeping okay and this whole week have gone for my morning walk/run without fail. Have also been able to focus enough to update this blog a few times. So hoping to extend this break from all social media (except whatsapp) for another 10 days just to see what happens ...
Update: The break did not extend as long as planned, I got my twitter password issue fixed on 19th, so at least I was out for about 10 days overall. I could get by for while without twitter, but as a side-effect I started using facebook on a daily basis. I used to check FB just once in a couple of months and last 1 week I used that twitter alternative as similar stuff is going there as well with people ranting for and against in various issues. The quality of discussions is much lower than twitter. So eventually I think getting back to twitter is better. But I did un-follow a lot of folks - removed 60 and added a few tech folks who tweet about things of interest to me. Decided not to engage at all on political topics, not because it does not matter. More so because this kind of debates don't interest me any longer as it is reduced to brawls, cheap point scoring, always finding faults and making snide remarks about those whose views/actions you don't agree. Its a good representation of the reality no doubt but for now I will let it go. So aim is to follow and engage with more meaningful topics and lets see if this approach makes any difference
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