Quit Twitter (2019)
medium.com
medium.com
1. Open Twitter in a desktop browser (should work the same on mobile but I did this on desktop)
2. Go to Settings -> Content Preferences -> Explore Settings
3. De-select "Show content in this location"
4. Click on "Explore locations" and select Bhutan
5. Ignore the warning informing you that Buthan's Trending section does not exist, and save.
There's evidence of manipluation of threads [0], shadow-banning / blacklisting of users on the 'platform' in light of the admin tool leak [1]
Not only 'Trends' are subject to manipluation artificially, but it now matters more about 'who's tweets' actually do show up on Top or Trending sections; even with similar Likes, hearts and comments. Take this tweet [2] for example which proves that they are 'shadow-banned' on the trends section and still has similar stats like the trending tweet.
I won't be suprised to see the same in Instagram, TikTok or many others these days.
[0] https://twitter.com/ArcVRArthur/status/1282436347421171712
[1] https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/jgxd3d/twitter-insider-ac...
[2] https://twitter.com/RubinReport/status/1287903462689103872
(semi-OT: I'm also surprised how those screenshots are paraded around as "aha! caught them!". Did anyone seriously think there wasn't any moderation of trends etc going on before?)
Looks like there's a network of these guys, doing RTs and talking with their group in order to gain followers.
Most of them sell courses and ebooks.
This is pretty similar to conspiracy theorists vs normal people with regards to the US government spying on people before Snowden.
The reason why I liken this to Snowden is because at least anecdotally, the typically dialogue I have seen is
Conspiracy Theorist: "Twitter are shadow-banning people!"
Normal Person A: "That's a dumb conspiracy theory."
Twitter: "We are not shadow-banning people."
Normal Person B: "Here is proof that Twitter shadow-bans people."
Normal Person A: "Well yeah, obviously. It would be pretty naïve to think they weren't always doing this."
---
You can quite accurately substitute Twitter with the US government, shadow-banning with spying, and Normal Person B with Edward Snowden.
[0] https://blogs.wsj.com/cio/2014/02/18/richard-stallman-calls-...
I too am surprised at people who thought the trending list was organic. It's been obvious from the day it appeared that it's curated and/or paid for placements. Purely from a programming point of view, trying to keep hate speech, racism, and shock content out of it automatically would be nigh on impossible (q.v. recent AI attempts to do this sort of thing on News sites and Facebook).
Ruthlessly unfollow or mute those who pander to the lowest common denominator, avoid general interest politics at all costs, follow only experts in their field and keep following count below 200. Refuse to play the game of becoming internet popular - unless you have a blue check, it’s rigged against you anyway.
"I also don’t feel good about how Twitter tends to incentivize outrage, fast takes, short term thinking, echo chambers, and fragmented conversation and consideration."
I see Twitter as an almost pure outrage machine. I generally avoid it but when I do visit it and the Tweet I'm reading is about a topic that has two or more sides, most of the replies shown in response are the just the most vicious and aggressive attacks by the other side. Just punch lines or insults.
The end result, after many weeks of muting, was fascinating: firstly, twitter became much more considered and informative. And secondly, it became far, far, less engaging! I’d read something and think “huh, that’s useful” or “seems reasonable” and with a yawn close the app.
Enragement is engagement. Twitter (the business) has failed to figure out what problem it solves, what its really _for_, and that vacuum of leadership has been filled by the emergent consequences of its algorithms.
I created an anonymous account for everything else.
Then things picked up and there was a massive influx of people and companies. That's when things changed. In and of itself, the public debate isn't a bad thing: it's, above all, a function of a larger, more diverse audience trooping in one place. The fact of the matter is that Twitter, as a private company, never had any incentive to create the affordances to cater to the complexities and intricacies that come with hosting the public debate. On the contrary.
I just stopped using Twitter at the end of last year, for the sake of my own mental well being. That doesn't exclude me from being concerned or being reflective about the topics and current events that are on everyone's mind these days. Not being on Twitter helped me reclaim mental bandwidth to reflect on my own life, here and now, and allows me to consider the world in a critical and compassionate way without sapping my energy.
For me the keys were:
- Be fast to follow and unfollow accounts. It's hard to build a valuable feed, and requires a lot of experimentation. Some accounts I felt sure would be valuable are not (for example, info security researchers who only tweet complaints about travel rewards programs). And some accounts that seemed marginal turned out to be great, like some socialist/leftists who are also hilarious.
- Don't write tweets. Seriously, unless you are really trying to build a personal brand, there's no reason to tweet. Same with retweets.
- Remember any tweet you enjoyed and might want to see again. You can do this with the "like" button, or by bookmarking.
- Block or force-unfollow anyone following you, who you don't like. A force-unfollow is done by blocking and then immediately unblocking that account. Doing this silently knocks them off your follower list.
- Ultimately I made my account private to make it easier to focus on reading.
To each his own.
I always wonder how people even come across problems such as hate speech and toxic people over there. Politic threads with people who have no understanding of the topic they are talking about? Stop joining trashy and pointless discussions - problem solved.
This has directly led to me being more involved in open source, submitting talks to conferences I'd previously felt are out of my league, and has demystified hard topics like formal methods.
Twitter, like all social media, seems to be what you make of it.
Quitting it is arguably better tho
Out of:
Snapchat
TikTok
Quora
HN
Forums were basically never used for socializing with people you met irl. Nor could I imagine a scenario where I'm using a forum to stay in contact with irl friends except the rare case where my squad somehow set one up in 2006.
Do you think HN not having pictures plays a role in keeping it cleaner than Reddit?
I would recommend that if you're from the U.S., just subscribe to the Reuters RSS feed and one Chinese state public broadcast channel (globaltimes.cn). That's it. You'd know what both sides say and form an independent opinion after that.
If you're Chinese, follow one of the reputable American media (not CNN, Fox, New York Times etc they're low quality entertainment sources, not news) but something like AP or Reuters in addition to your own. Never believe one side.
Arguments used to justify twitter always rely on certain users of the platform. I am not sure how that makes twitter good as a platform. By staying on the platform, you are forcing other developers and people to use it to announce their projects and keep you up-to-date aka networks effect.