Last month I wrote about going on a 30 day Twitter fast. Well, #MyTimeIsUp. I’ve had a lot of observations over the last month, and I think you’ll benefit from hearing about them.
The Bad
Although the experiment as a whole was beneficial, there were definitely some negative aspects of it as well.
The main one being, I was less visible. I flew under the radar persay. There were several times I wanted to share one of my youtube videos, or blog articles with my followers, and being unable to was extremely annoying.
Sharing my content through Twitter allows people who would otherwise be unaware of my work to benefit from it. In addition, it also improves my rankings in google and youtube.
The other drawback of leaving Twitter is it prevented me from reaching out to new people I wanted to hang out with over summer break. If I hadn’t gotten someone’s number before school ended I had virtually no way of contacting them.
Normally I wouldn’t find this particularly annoying, but during a period I’m trying to expand my social circle and become more extroverted it was a definite drawback.
The Good
Although there were several negative aspects of not being on Twitter I feel the positives definitely outweighed them.
The most obvious benefit of leaving Twitter was the extra time. Prior to this experiment I had been spending 32 minutes per day on the site. Some of that time was probably wasted in the form of other excess internet usage, but I was also able to use some of it to write new articles as well as begin meditating more regularly.
Another benefit of leaving Twitter is I was able to stay more present to the moment. Whenever something funny used to happen I would rush to Twitter and tweet about it. Like most people, I enjoyed the small feeling of validation when someone would retweet or favorite my tweets.
It was a gradual shift, but over the last several weeks I’ve found myself spending less time thinking of witty statuses to impress my followers, and more time enjoying things as they happen.
The final benefit I’ve noticed over the last month or so is I’ve been able to avoid most of the negativity that’s typically broadcast by my peers. I don’t miss the endless self-pity and drama.
Final Verdict
I’m still not sold on the benefits of social networking, but I’m going to modify my approach and give it one last shot before dropping it entirely.
I now visit Twitter only once per day. In addition, I now follow 0 people. Some people may consider that impolite. Too bad. I’ve found that even when I’m only following close friends and other personal development bloggers the noise to signal ratio is still too low for it to be worth my time.
I’ll still mention others in my tweets, and reply to them when they mention me, but I don’t want to have anything to do with reading ALL their tweets.
As of now I doubt I’ll maintain a social networking profile at all in a few months, but I want to test these adjustments before jumping to a conclusion.
I’m curious to hear about your experiences with social networking. Do you think it’s worth the time?
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