Why I quit using Twitter, or anything social media related

Let's clear something up before I continue.

Let's establish something here. I used to be in an odd position where my usage of social media is only just one platform ... yeah it's Twitter, now known as X. I'll continue to call it Twitter on this blog post because I've left that platform before it was renamed.

So yes, I never had interest in using other major platforms that is owned by Meta (Facebook and Instagram) and mobile platforms such as Snapchat and Tiktok.

My usage of Facebook and Instagram was very, very little. I think it was 10 minutes or less. Just made an account, tried to connect with a family member, failed, logged out. Only years later to get an e-mail for my two-factor-authentication to kick in. Sounds like someone wants to get into my account that has almost no history. Instead of changing password, I just deleted the account. By the way, Facebook web design is very dated at this point, it's painful navigating the website.

I've used WhatsApp, but only during my vacation weeks. So that's like what?--Two weeks with-in the year? Yeah that checks out. After the final day, I pop out the sim card out of the "vacation phone" (smartphone) and put it back into my dumbphone.

Tiktok is interesting. Before the app existed, I was already familiar with the app called Musically. The moment I saw the premise of what the app is, I already knew it's not for me. It's all about recording yourself either dancing to your favorite music or singing. I don't like using that c-word but yeah ... it's cringe. The moment I saw the logo of Tiktok, I just knew it's yet another successor to Musically and I avoid it.

Don't get me wrong, I understand that TikTok has grown to become more than just music. But that won't stop me from seeing strangers doing dances in pubic on front of their smartphones propped up and even worse, youngsters doing it as well. It's real creepy, I dislike it.

If there is anything I feel the need to include, it's YouTube and Reddit. Awhile many can argue these two are not really "social media platforms," they certainly have enough dark patterns in these websites to the point that you'll have no choice but to admit--it's kind of the same category. The moment you find anything that is distracting to the point that a plug-in needs to be installed or editing the settings on your web browser to fix the issue ... then we really are back to annoyances that most social media platforms have. Example: both sites have "related/recommended" posts on the side of the website. They are designed to waste your time.

Thankfully I rarely access Reddit and my way of accessing YouTube is invidious. Invidious is a private way of watching YouTube videos and allows me to disable annoying and distracting features from YouTube's website.

Okay let's just talk about Twitter alone and nothing else.

Like I said, I left the website before it renamed. This means I didn't get to experience the many changes from a man who quickly took over Twitter and then left.

Since I already mentioned dark patterns, lets get straight into it. The trending box on the right side of the page is not only annoying, but it's not customizable either. The only thing you can do, is change the language. Let's say you are into sports, you'll definitely see a few popping up in that box, but sometimes you'll just see politics, music, or even videogames.

Then here comes the bigger issue with Twitter. I've changed the language in order for the box to be least distracting. But here is the thing: Twitter does not respect your choices. So I set the language to Thai. Most of the time it stays in that language but eventually, I'll see a few that is in English and it's an event that is happening in USA (rather than Thailand.)

Imagine playing a videogame where the settings doesn't work but worse, the developers would grief the players by switching the settings all the time.

The dreaded bell notification

This was the moment where I knew the website was turning into a massive turd.

Other than the website having the endless scroll, the bell icon with the red circle on top of it, is absolutely evil. The pure definition of dark patterns.

The moment you see something red, you know you want to click on it.

Okay what I just listed up there are actually useful content to check up on. But Twitter doesn't care about that, they rather put garbage to keep you busy. The more seconds, minutes, and even hours you are on the platform, the more they win you over for time for attention.

It's way more noticeable if you only follow 20 or less users and you just lurk--meaning I shouldn't have my notification bell going off all the time. It should be empty 90 percent of the time but not any more.

Let's go over the rubbish I see, shall we?

"We noticed that you haven't logged in for a long time, here is what you missed."

First of all, I don't care. Second of all, I log into the platform when ever I want to.

"This user posted something, so we figured you should check it out."

What a useless alert. I can already access the main page and see what everyone posts. Are you suggesting that I'm clueless or something? That I don't know how to use this platform?

"This user like this post so we figured you'd like it too."

You don't get to tell me which content I should or should "like." Buzz off.

"This user followed this user, so we figured you'd follow that user as well."

No. There is good chance the user might post content that I won't like, therefore, I will not "follow" that user.

"Here are your stats on your recent post!"

Don't care. Never asked nor give a darn. I'll look up the stats whenever I want to, not the other way around.

But I am not done talking about this.

Going too far with the bell notification

What if I told you that I get a notification that is related to the real world? I don't have the screenshot anymore but during COVID-19 pandemic, I get this:

"An infant had died from COVID-19."

Look, I understand that is really awful news to learn about a child. I get it.

But really ... why am I getting news from Twitter of all places?

When I entered into Twitter, I made it my journey to find entertaining content. No politics, no war. Basically I don't want to be reminded of the real world. Why? Because I have already suffered through that on my workdays. So much stress I had to deal with in real life during the pandemic. I need some form of escapism, and Twitter, failed on that front.

I don't remember seeing other political/real-world news popping up in my notifications but there is something so embarrassing for a social media platform to "babysit" the users.

This was really the moment where I have no control over this. I would search the deep ends of the settings to learn that I can't do anything about this.

Funny confession and the dangers of the "like" function

This is getting sad, so let me cheer you up with a confession. It'll be educational too. So allow me to confess something.

I had no idea that "liking" a post is pubic.

Yeah uhhh ... all those naughty artworks that I'm liking? Yeah ...

Sure I can make the argument that I'm an artist and I don't feel the need to hide my honry side of things but uhhh ... yeah I can see why a few had to unfollow me.

But it's the other way around for me as well.

When I see a post from a user who I am not following, I ask: "why am I seeing this post?" Well, the text above it says "the user (that you followed) has liked this post."

It's one thing for a user to "retweet" because they know it's designed to share to their own users, but it's really messed up if Twitter decides to inform you what a certain user "liked" a post.

So let's say I follow a wholesome artist who doesn't talk about politics or any other real world problems. All of their posts are good, it checks out. But, it all comes crumbling down when I see that artist "liking" a post from a user complaining about an event that had happen in the real world. Then I would see that post that Twitter randomly shove towards my face, and finally, read the ol' "this user has liked this post." All because Twitter really wants to add more to the endless scroll functionally.

So yeah ... I really thought my "like(s)" were private for awhile.

After I learn the hard way, I just only "like" content that are safe for work.

Sorry to the few that had their feed popping up with a naughty artwork awhile they are at work or something. I had no idea ...

How the platform dislike users having little interaction and usage

There was a point where I stopped using Twitter overall because of my usage of phones. I'll eventually make a separate blog post on that. Long story short, I had finally installed LineageOS which means the phone is wiped. When I looked at Twitter on the app store, I said "nah, let's try this out for a week. A week of no Twitter." After just a single day, I'm very, very, happy.

Once I learned that having Twitter on my smartphone is not worth it anymore, it's just desktop-browser-nonsense left.

Already I feel no need to constantly log into Twitter. By then I already have logged out and focus on the things I really care about.

But the moment I came back to log in, Twitter is not pleased. How so? They really dislike the "bot-like" behaviour I am committing. They hate that I only do this: log in, post content, log out. I don't even touch the notification icon, I don't check other people's posts, I don't even like nor retweet. I just post content.

What is rather interesting is the fact of what happened when I posted any content, a unique message pops up. The message is just begging me to engage more with the platform (AKA "please make more tweets, do likes and retweets etc.")

It's weird looking back at that. Feels like I've achieved a little victory. A bit of middle finger to the platform. The fact that I am going against what the platform preferred is amazing.

Wrapping up on Twitter awfulness

After a long time of rarely logging into Twitter, it was clear, I'm done.

Here is my last post:

twitter_1

Yeah. Give another year or two. I finally deleted my account. The reason why I allowed the account to sit and collect dust is because I was hoping the account would automatically be deleted but I guess I'm wrong. So I had to do it myself.

It's over ... even though I haven't logged into the platform in a long time but you know what I mean.

Besides, the fact that Twitter had made it hard to view content without logging in is a blessing for me. So uhh, yay?

Is there other things I've missed about Twitter?

Let's see, I can't say much about ads. Their position on what they can do in politics side of things AKA silencing and/or pushing an agenda. The almost mandatory monthly subscription service and killing the importance of the funny blue check mark ... seriously I miss the days when seeing users with that icon is a joke. But to add more to that, it's oddly pay2win in terms of having their tweets be more visible because they are a paid customer, awhile users who don't pay will have their tweets be buried.

Uhh recently there is an AI being shoved into the platform ... don't know what it does and don't care. All I know is people are mocking it.

A simple question

"Should I quit Twitter?" or rather "Should I quit social media altogether?"

My answer is obvious, yes.

But believe it or not, I am a supporter of decentralized social media platforms such as diaspora and Mastodon. Those clearly don't have dark patterns and they are powered by the community, not by a greedy company.

You'll learn real quick that it's difficult to reach out to many users in those network and that's good. It's better to keep things small. What would you prefer: huge following but only a few cares what you do? Or a small following but they all are passionate of what you do?

Instead of the central network feeding you what you like, you'll have to do the hard work by seeking users who have similar interests. Don't think following spree will help you. There are users who have strict rules on who they prefer to follow/follow-back.

When you look at my Mastodon account, it's clear what I do. I just post content. I don't go off-topic, talk about the real world and politics, complain about a certain industry (like videogames), or even just whine about what happened with-in a few days. I am even trying to make sure I don't use offensive words anymore ... even though I haven't done that in many years? Ehh I don't know.