1---
  2template:
  3slug: twitter
  4title: Some thoughts on Twitter
  5subtitle: I've begun avoiding Twitter, here's why
  6date: 2020-08-03
  7---
  8
  9This post has been a long time coming. Earlier this year, I decided to
 10not actively participate on Twitter, and stick to the fediverse
 11primarily. This has been quite possibly the best decision I've made,
 12with regard to curating my social / informational feeds -- apart from
 13[not reading news](/blog/dont-news). I'll try to gloss over some reasons
 14as to why I dislike Twitter as a platform, in this post. Bear in mind,
 15these are based on my experiences and YMMV.
 16
 17
 18## filter bubbles and radicalization
 19
 20I think this can be said about any social network, but the way that
 21Twitter is designed only further enables this phenomenon. The more you
 22interact / show interest in a specific topic, the more you see of the
 23same -- in terms of suggested accounts to follow, notifications/email telling
 24you XYZ tweeted this (you probably don't even follow XYZ).
 25
 26I've experienced this first hand. I created an alt and followed a few
 27prominent right-wing accounts (for science!), and within a day or two,
 28my notifications and inbox were filled with similar accounts & tweets.
 29
 30This, as a result, means the user is much more likely to see content
 31similar to their own perspectives -- a *filter bubble*. The user is
 32effectively isolated in their own ideological bubbles. Consequentially,
 33any form of disagreement that occurs is tossed aside as _the other
 34party's_ flaw.
 35Surely they wouldn't hold that perspective if they could see things
 36_your_ way! It's _their_ ignorance!
 37
 38One might argue, however, that they do in fact see a lot of opposing
 39viewpoints in their feed. After all, most of mainstream discourse on
 40Twitter is just derisive tweets by proponents of either side[^1], at
 41each other. The left quote-tweeting the right and vice versa, for
 42example. In fact, this is pretty much all that today's "news" is 
 43about -- constant, endless rebuttals to the other's perspective. 
 44I still think this _is_ filter bubbling -- the constant 
 45reaffirmation of your ideologies, by taking potshots at the other side.
 46
 47[^1]: By which I mean any two ideologically opposing groups. 
 48    Not restricted to politics.
 49
 50And what does constant exposure to a singular viewpoint lead to? That's
 51right, radicalization. I won't get into too much detail -- there really
 52isn't much to say. I'll just add that I know of a few cases IRL, where
 53within little over a year of having created a Twitter account the
 54person's political and ideological positions became hard lines -- and
 55they now straight up refuse to look at things any other way. This is by
 56no means a scientific conclusion; there are various other influencing
 57factors, but my point still stands.
 58
 59
 60## favors mistakes over apologies
 61
 62Twitter's design is plagued with flaws, but this one takes the cake. If
 63you screw up or tweet something incorrect, and it happens to go viral,
 64there's literally no good way to publish a correction / apology. Quoting
 65the fantastic article by Nick Punt on [deescalating conflict on social
 66media](https://nickpunt.com/blog/deescalating-social-media/):
 67
 68> If we ignore replies, the simple amplification effects of likes,
 69> replies, retweets, and subtweets leave us exposed and the situation
 70> can get out of hand. If we delete and post another, people are
 71> unlikely to see our follow-up, as corrections are rarely viral.
 72> Similarly, even if we reply, only our viral mistake will be seen in
 73> the feed of others. 
 74
 75
 76## too much USPOL
 77
 78This might be a non-issue for US residents, but gosh is it irritating to
 79see US politics literally everywhere. I'm of the opinion that USPOL is
 80given an unfair amount of attention in mainstream discourse -- to the
 81point where it overshadows everything else, and Twitter is no exception.
 82
 83
 84## generally unhealthy discourse
 85
 86If you take a close look at the overarching theme of most Tweets, or
 87even just the popular ones -- you'll notice a fairly negativist outlook
 88across most, if not all of them. The
 89[r/2meirl4meirl](https://reddit.com/r/2meirl4meirl) kind.[^2] This is
 90a very unhealthy environment to socialize in. Constantly brooding over
 91things you can't really affect is quite pointless.
 92
 93Another general theme is the constant need for one-upping the other -- the 
 94never-ending contest of who's going to post the most clever
 95comeback. For what? For the likes and retweets, of course. This is also
 96what most of "cancel culture" is really about -- pick a target, post
 97screenshots, add a snide remark: voilà, you have a somewhat popular
 98tweet.
 99
100[^2]: Most posts on that sub are just screenshots of tweets, so...
101
102## why don't you just curate your feed then bro?
103
104Yeah, no. I've tried. The problem is, following someone for the
105technical content doesn't imply they're constantly only going to post
106that -- and that's their prerogative. And Twitter's annoying "XYZ liked
107this tweet" doesn't help either. Trying to make your Twitter timeline
108BS-free is like trying to straighten a dog's tail.
109
110So what do I suggest then? I really don't know. Honestly, all social
111media sucks. The entire idea is so contrived and the world would've been
112better off without it -- the incessant, mind-numbing feed of
113information. But the shinier turd here is the fediverse. It's not
114governed by `$BIGTECH`, and extremists have decided to stick to their
115own echo chambers like Gab. Oh, and the other side propagates massive
116blocklists for the tiniest of infractions (defined by them), so they
117effectively echo chambered themselves too. I'm not complaining.
118
119> "All social media sucks, but the fediverse sucks less."  
120> — Me, 2020