Quit Twitter

Jun 01, 2019

Quit Twitter

"But new evidence shows that the platform may be inflicting harm at an even more basic level. It could be making its users, well, a bit witless."

I quit Twitter and haven't post or even logged on in over a year. I can safely say I have never been happier. Twitter is a complete dumpster fire that consumes you and everything thing the demon touches. If I was a religious person I'd say with complete confidence that Twitter is a product of Satan run by one of this minions.

Just quit.

It will be hard for the first few months. It's like a drug you have to detox from.

Just do it.

I've heard all the excuses for not quitting (I made them all), just substitute the words "heroin" or "booze" for "twitter" and see if your excuses make sense anymore.

You will be a happier person.

Just quit.

Sir Francois de Mercier

Jun 01, 2019

The same with Facebook. For me, it was more painfull to quit facebook (no caps needed) than the big "T".

Ignacio

Jun 01, 2019

Do you use another social media or place to share news and thoughts? (Including this blog). I want to know if there is an efficient way to keep updated with news without end in these kind of social networks

Ron Gilbert

Jun 01, 2019

RSS Feeds. https://feedly.com is a good way to read them.

Octavi

Jun 02, 2019

I'm in the process of quitting as well. I deleted the phone app and any link on my PC a few months ago and feels great. Sometimes I just forget to log in for a few days. There was a time when checking Twitter was the first thing I did in the morning and that made me angry and depressed for the rest of the day. It's pure poison.

Jim

Jun 02, 2019

I have the opposite problem - I'm meant to go on it often to try to network and engage with people in my field, but I always forget or I just go on for 5 mins and think, "eh, I can't be bothered to read all these tweets and like and reply, etc." so I just close it.

J. McCrackan

Jun 02, 2019

Actually, I've heard the same excuses to try heroin and booze in the first place: "It'll make you happier." So exactly *how* has quitting Twitter made you happier?

Johnny Walker

Jun 02, 2019

The sooner Twitter dies, the better. It's the perfect platform for reductive and negative comments, and impossible to have a nuanced, intelligent discussion on it. It's the worst of the internet.

Zak Phoenix McKracken

Jun 02, 2019

If you want, please login in the Thimbleweed Park forum, sometimes. Just to read and optionally write some positive thoughts.

Guntha

Jun 03, 2019

I originally created a Twitter account as a cheap way to get more visibility, to "market" my things. Now I argue with people I don't even know, and I can feel my opinions becoming less and less nuanced.

Winfried Maus

Jun 03, 2019

I wholeheartedly agree. I regularly check the Twitter feeds (tweets? I don't even know the terminology!) of four people, but I never bothered to open an account myself. I also never opened a Facebook account - and in my book, Facebook represents the worst of the Internet. Peer pressure more or less pushed me into opening a LinkedIn account years ago, but I never found a value for myself in that network; the data collected there might be of interest to Microsoft (who bought LinkedIn a while ago), but not once did I have the impression that LinkedIn actually did something for me. Other poison on the web are troll forums like macrumors.com, Spiegel Online (yeah, I'm German...), heise.de or basically any tech-related webpage that has a "forum". These things were nice before the Internet became a mass medium that everybody could use. Nowadays, the Internet is just as dumb and dirty as TV and the less time you spend on it, the better.

Winfried Maus

Jun 03, 2019

I think this eMail address should now show my pic...?

Simon

Jun 03, 2019

Well said MR.Gilbert. I quit more than 3 years ago from twitter and other life leeching sites and it feels amazing after the adjustment period has passed. The only form of electronic entertainment I kept are my beloved old (and some new) pc adv games. Many many thanks for all the great games you have created (and hopefully will in the future) and best wishes from far away Slovakia. Since the very early golden era adventure days (80's) You still have many (veeery old) fans of your works over here in east EU. We often talk about these gems when we get together over a beer etc. May the light always guide your path 😀

Evan

Jun 03, 2019

I quit Facebook and Twitter over a year ago. Do not miss them one bit! At first I though i'd miss the connections I had with people from my past. But then I realized, pre social media, these people would have faded out of my life long ago. For good reason too! I have nothing in common with them anymore other than we shared some time at some point in the distant past. The people I really care about I can call or text any time I want.

Ian Prest

Jun 03, 2019

I agree 100%. You, sir, just got yourself another Twitter follower!

Mark Bauermeister

Jun 03, 2019

Dunno about Twitter, but Facebook quite literally ruined my life.

Lukas

Jun 04, 2019

Post doesn't leave much room, so I'll just add "I disagree". :)

Lancelot's Hangover

Jun 04, 2019

I'm curious Ron : as you know it, social media and communtiy management are very important for indie devs to promote their games (especially if they're not very well known and/or didn't made lots of games yet). Once you'll have a new game to promote, will you go back to Twitter (and other big social media)? Will you delegate this task to a community manager? What's your advice for indies who don't have budget to hire communty managers but still want to expose their game to players and press via social media ?

Ron Gilbert

Jun 04, 2019

@Lancelot, that's a really good question and one I don't know the answer to. My new game will probably have a social media presence, but it's not going to be me and it's going to be about the game not shit happening in the world. I also suspect that an indie being on Twitter has less impact that people think.

Lancelot's Hangover

Jun 04, 2019

Thanks a lot for your answer, Ron.

Fun fact : I've read (on Twitter) that Reddit brings way more players and sales (5 to 10 times) than Twitter (my own experience during my KS campaign and some conversations with other devs lead to the same conclusion). I guess the best way to manage yourself a social media presence would be to post some GIFs and screenshots and go away as soon as it's published - but the tentation to hang out, read some tweets and procrastinate is very high (I plead very guilty on this). After all, social media are design to suck all your attention :/

Scott Cameron

Jun 05, 2019

In a world of Facebook and Twitter, sites like the Thimbleweed Park forums are super chilled places. Did you have a hand in creating the forum site, or was that fan-made? And if you did, will you create one for your new game so we can all have a new place to hang out? :D

RC

Jun 07, 2019

I guess Twitter is different for "famous" people. I'm a nobody and I never really argue with anyone on Twitter and no one knows I even exist, so no one would ever think of selecting me as a target for trolling or whatever. I use Twitter pretty much like a feed reader. I follow a couple of news sites and people who do interesting stuff and that's it. When I do go check out Twitter, I literally just read the news and I'm done.

Never had a Facebook Account and don't even understand why anyone would use it. It's worthless to me.

AlfredJ

Jun 08, 2019

RC: I only ever got Facebook because it was the main way to keep in touch with new friends/events when I started university, and we (I) didn't realize the evils of the platform yet. I'm 30, and I definitely notice that most people from my generation aren't really using it anymore, apart from the occasional birthday party event. I should probably delete it at this point, but I guess I'm a slave as well since there are still a handful of people I only contact through Facebook, and it is handy for birthday reminders and the event organizers. But these days it's mostly elderly relatives getting heavy use out of it - I rarely check it more than once a week. Still, the day that I unplug from it altogether is approaching fast.

The one that I really would love to get rid of is Whatsapp (I'm from Europe, I think it's less popular in the States?). I'm fine with being able to easily chat with friends I don't get to see that often and get the occasional family baby pics, but I can definitely get into that ugly habit of it being the first/last thing I look at during the day, and spending way too much time on it when I'm stressed and should be focusing on other stuff. I definitely do miss the days of being mostly disconnected from the internet/rest of the world, instead of being always reachable. Sadly, I can't just delete it because we use it for work chat as well (which goes for a lot of jobs over here).

Still, this post was a good reminder that I should put more effort into disconnecting when I'm off the clock and being more present in the moment. I'm always happier and more relaxed whenever I manage to do that for longer periods

Marco Maggiore

Jun 08, 2019

Amen!

David Oberlin

Jun 10, 2019

Yeah. For the past five minutes I've been thinking about how I felt about logging off. And to be honest the idea filled me with dread so I went to look at my feed for validation that it brought something worthwhile to my psyche; hah! Yeah...

I'm logging off Twitter and going to do something constructive.

George Broussard

3d ago

I find what works best for me is: i don't follow people that are constantly negative or especially outraged based. I try to follow artists and creators that are generally positive and post cool things from their projects. You control what you pull into your life via Twitter through the people you follow. This made Twitter a much more pleasurable experience for me overall. For indies trying to start or build a brand I think they have to be on Twitter, just in case. You need to build a following and fans and have a constant easily accessible platform to tell people to wishlist your game every few days.