I deleted my @RRRJessica twitter account recently.
The reason is simple and the fault is all mine: I can’t handle the Twitter. I didn’t tweet all that much, but I would check in quite often to see what others were tweeting. Sure, I could use Leechblock or set rules to keep my tweet lurking down, but I don’t need yet one more thing in my life that I have to exercise self-control over. And I found that Twitter encouraged me to split my attention in an unhealthy manner. I knew I was in trouble the other day when I seriously contemplated buying a Banana Bunker at the MoMA museum store just so I could showcase it on Twitpic (I still kind of regret not buying it, actually). I just want to be where I am when I am there.
So that was the reason, but now I get to the rationalizations, i.e. the ex post facto arguments I use to make myself feel better about de-tweeting. If you don’t want to see Twitter criticized, stop reading now!:
1. I’ve heard all about how you are supposed to use your blog as the mother ship and Twitter and other social media as smaller vessels. While I could sometimes see positive stat effects of the heavyweight retweet, the fact is that this is a niche blog which will never appeal to a very large audience. What makes this blog strong is good posts, and the more time I spent tweeting, the less energy I had for blog posts. Writing blog posts is draining, but at least you have achieved something when you finish. With Twitter, the energy just kind of gets sucked into the Twitterverse with no return on investment. As Blogher Super Jive memorably put it, “If a good, well-thought out blog post is a night making sweet, sweet love to Al Green, then Twittering was thirty seconds in the art supply closet huffing glue. Quick, dirty, and when you tumble out of there you can’t remember jack and you have a sharp headache.”
I’m not witty or pithy, so my unremarkable Twitter stream is not the legacy I want my online presence to leave, yet, unlike Facebook, it’s open, forever, to anyone. It’s like having a permanent public record of every off the cuff remark you’ve ever made. If that doesn’t make you shudder, you are a much better person than I am. The anonymity problem hit me when someone I admire in my academic field started following me. I emailed him to suggest he try following my professional Twitter account instead (which boasts exactly one tweet a month, but at least I don’t talk about Banana Bunkers on it). He demurred. Blocking him would be an insult, but I found myself thinking with two hats while tweeting. I also found myself tempted to tweet things about work or people in my life that are unwise to share. Some of you may remember my wrath on the day promotional material went out about a “public health” event with a crucial letter in the first word — l — missing. In real life, I would never gripe about a coworker to anyone but my husband — it’s just not how I handle things — but I did that day. Twitter poses a certain temptation that I would just as soon do without.
2. I also felt that Twitter was impacting my attempt to be as noncommercial as possible on this blog. I’ve blogged about why I don’t accept free copies of books for review, or participate in author promos. At first, on Twitter, I didn’t follow any authors for the same reason. But when May rolled around and the @replies rules changed, I had to follow authors and editors in order to make any sense of what the bloggers I followed were saying. I found it affected what I wanted to write on the blog.
3. It took a lot of concentration and effort to try to engage in any type of real conversation within Twitter’s constraints. They say Twitter is a like a cocktail party. How likely is it that you will have a meaningful conversation over the noise and interruptions of a cocktail party? I tried a few of the #followreader chats but they were a nightmare. Even one-on-one chats were exercises in futility. I would often ask a follow up question only to find out my interlocutor answered it already in a tweet I hadn’t seen yet. If my interlocutor had more to say than one tweet could accommodate, I would sit and wait for the second, the third, the fourth tweet … not exactly an expedient way to chat.
4. Twitter bots. I wanted my follow count to reflect real people. I felt like I was spending too much time blocking spammers. Twitter has really got to do a better job with this.
5. Being overwhelmed. The romance genre is terrifyingly large. How many hundreds of books are published each month? Instead of feeling grateful for news of new releases or great reads, I started feeling a bit anxious, like I was always behind the eight ball. I want my romance reading hobby to continue to be an oasis from stress, a way to relax and rejuvenate. I have managed this on my blog, somehow. I know other people manage it on Twitter, but I just couldn’t shut out the noise.
They say you should set goals for your tweeting, so you don’t get overwhelmed. I finally figured out that I personally don’t have any goals that Twitter can help me meet. Quite the reverse, actually.
I’m already regretting that I can’t tweet with @RedRobinReader and @ScarletCorset about tonight’s True Blood episode, and there are some folks I love to tweet with that I won’t get a chance to interact with now (they don’t comment on blogs, but are available on Twitter), but for now, at least, it’s the right choice for me.
What do you say? Do you tweet? Why or why not? What do you get out of it? Have you found ways to make your Twitter experience better?
I am still on the twitter bandwagon but I mainly use it to get my name out there. I noticed that ever since I tweet a post from my blog, at least 40% of my blog traffic comes from twitter.
But I don’t get it when some will tweet about every little thing in their life.
I think I’ve finally found the generational luddite line that I’m not interested in crossing, with Twitter.
I don’t have anything against it. I just have no interest in figuring it out. Maybe someday, but not now.
I had to stop tweeting because it made my anxiety over writing even worse, and like you, it was an energy suck when it came to blogging. I’ll probably hop on again when I sell (or maybe not–a few of my favorite writers have accts but don’t tweet very often). It was fun while it lasted, but I find that it’s very easy for an ever expanding presence online creates a narrow focus for my creative juices.
I’ve had to cut back on Twitter and blogging lately because work has been so stressful that the online stuff seemed to be making it worse. I think I was overstimulated. I even went as far as hitting the delete button on Twitter last week, but I wussed out at the last second.
There definitely is such a thing as too much information. It’s overwhelming.
Twitter scratches my itch when it comes to “micro-blogging.” I use it for when I want to throw random, pithy crap out there, but I can’t generate enough words out of it to make it a semi-decent blog post.
That said? My blog is always first and foremost. Twitter is a nice diversion, but I don’t want to get sucked into it on a regular basis. Which would be why I never Tweet from my cell phone. Way, way too dangerous.
It’s funny to me that you would just decide to quite Twitter. I joined Twitter a couple of months ago, and while I find it fun I don’t find it addicting. When I am bored or have time to spare I head to twitter to see what my fellow readers are up to, when I am swamped at work or engrossed in a good read, I can easily by pass it. I haven’t actually been on twitter for over a week.
I find it curious that you would just decide to live without it all together. But could this be due more to your profession than just a time suck? I would hate to have to be constantly looking over my shoulder (so to speak).
Still on Twitter. I follow a lot of people who don’t blog or don’t blog much on Twitter. I also use it to get rid of the impulse to blog all those little things.
I’ll miss you on Twitter but since you’ll still be blogging here, not really, eh?
I haven’t given up on Twitter – yet – but I’ve definitely decided that there are limits to how much attention I can and will give it. It’s not only about the time drain, although that’s a major factor. No, the problem for a lot of us, I think, isn’t how much we want to do on it but how much we can handle coming back at us. I mean I don’t mind using it to publicize my blog every few posts or even signing on to chat for an hour or so here and there but staying on pretty much all the time like some do?
Ain’t gonna happen.
I’ve found that to be a definite information overload. Plus I’m not sure my bandwith can handle it on a regular basis and I’m on satellite for my ISP.
What I like most about Twitter is that it allows me to keep up with people who I might otherwise not be in such direct contact with. So many blogs to visit these days, so many people who don’t blog often but who tweet relatively frequently, so many informative bits and pieces of information and linkage.
Nicola O. wrote:
That pretty much sums it up for me too. And this post resonated with me a lot. I’ve actually been unsubscribing from a lot of blogs, trying to simplify my online life. (Not this one!) I definitely do not need another time suck.
I really identify with this bit: “I don’t need yet one more thing in my life that I have to exercise self-control over.” I find that checking my email can be distracting enough, even without adding a whole new set of messages that I’d feel I needed to keep up with.
@ katiebabs:
See, you’re one of the many people that has a goal Twitter can help you reach. I totally understand that.
Evangeline wrote:
I don’t have that much energy in general, and as an introvert, every minute socializing saps it (extroverts get energized by socializing). I’ve felt more focused and energized since I stopped checking Twitter.
JenB wrote:
And this is the difference between someone with poor impulse control (me) and mature impulse control (you). Hope things improve at work so you can get back to blogging!
Wendy wrote:
Wendy, if only I heard your words of wisdom before getting my itouch, I may never have had to write this post! You are one of the bloggers I most admire for your focus and longevity. I want to be around 3 years from now, maybe even 5, and I think Twitter won;t help me with that.
Jill D. wrote:
See, a person less obsessive and with better impulse control would do as you suggest: just cut back. But I was finding that every time I got stuck on a sentence in my WIP (nonfiction, of course), or in a blog post, I would surf over to Twitter, and before I knew it 20 minutes were gone. Or I’d have my itouch going while watching TV with my husband. Ideally, I would Tweet notices of blog posts and then limit it to maybe one short period in a day, but I found I wasn’t able to do that.
Janice wrote:
That’s a good point about using it to make little comments. I agree that there are a lot of good things about Twitter, but that’s not where my head was while writing this post!
BevBB wrote:
I agree. I think if I were at a different place in my life — single and living alone, for one thing — it would be less of a problem. But my kids even got annoyed with my tweeting (we’ll see how the worm turns when they are texting in a few years).
Robin wrote:
Robin, I agree, completely. And if I go back to it after a while, these will be the main reasons.
On the other hand, because of whom I followed, the information was largely to do with books, ebooks, book publishing, and book blogs. Those things are fun, but I have two jobs that have nothing to do with books. If you are an editor, an author, a publisher, a blogger who monetizes or has big goals, or a “social media expert”, you do need all of that information. For me, it was overwhelming … and for what? I just want to read romances and bog about them.
willaful wrote:
I think we all go through these cleansing cycles. Like an online enema. And then slowly things build up again. I am sure it will happen to me too.
Laura Vivanco wrote:
Maybe, as Nicola suggested, there’s a bit of an age thing operating here too (although I know I am older than you are). I think multitasking is easier for the younger set.
I’m with Nicola and Willaful on this. And if sometimes I feel like I’m falling behind on the hip new thing, I just remind myself that I don’t have the time.
Of course, I don’t have the time to blog either, but I make the time because I feel I really get something out of it. Writing a blog-post, formulating thoughts and ideas, reading other people’s ideas and feeding back – it’s a conversation. (And I also have to remind myself over and over that that’s why I blog – for that conversation – not for numbers – so easy to get sucked into that numbers thing!) I’ll make time for real conversation, but not for cocktail party chat.
I’ve really had some great and valuable interactions and advice on twitter, and I wouldn’t drop it, but it really is a double-edged sword. Like, I won’t go on it when I have any meaningful work to do, because even if I tell myself I’ll pull away from it after 10 minutes, suddenly it becomes like working when there is a cocktail party in the next room, and you have to keep poking your head in, and suddenly you have a drink and you’re staying, telling yourself you’ll do your project in the morning.
I love that analogy about huffing glue.
I might actually feel better about it if there were specific times during the day when people wanted to “meet” to chat for short periods of time but I know that’s unrealistic. It does remind me though of the old IRC chats and I had some of the same problems with them. Following conversations on them could be the very devil too and they were focused on single topics most of the time. With twitter it’s unreal. Fun but still unreal.
Oh, and there is one reason to keep things like Twitter and Facebook (which I haven’t actually signed up for yet) and that’s to keep in touch with people when you have problems accessing their site/blog. Like I’m been having this truly weird issue with Wendy’s blog for the last few months. It’s simply not there when I try to got through the browser but I just ran a search through Google Reader and was able to subscribe to the feed! Still can’t access the site but at least I can read the posts. Not sure how to comment, though. Help.
@ BevBB:
And I have absolutely no clue why it’s doing this to you. It’s really odd. Especially if you have no problems accessing other “blogspot” blogs. Odd. But hey – at least you got the feed!
I’ve been on Twitter for about two months, and I learned right away that I only want a little of it, kind of like having a jar of lemon drops on my desk. I’m only following four people, and I want to keep it that way.
@ Wendy: I know because I access all kinds of blogspot URLs all the time. (Those are Blogger blogs, right?) When yours comes up in the browser it says it’s a 501 and/or a 505 error. I even checked the Help suggestions in IE for that and all that did was change the page to a DNS error. Still no loading of your actual blog.
Did you also know that there’s another “superlibrarian” on blogspot? Without the _ in the URL? I did a general search earlier today and found that out. So, is it possible that this really is some kind of domain miscommunication thing across cyberspace?
Although why I’m the only one noticing/having a problem with it, I have no idea. :-/
Oh, and while I’m at it, what’s your Twitter id, Wendy, just in case since I can’t actually get to the site yet.
Okay, back to the regularly scheduled program.
@ BevBB:
I’m SuperWendy over on Twitter.
http://twitter.com/superwendy
Ok, now you have to spill it: who are the four and why do you follow them?
@ Karenmc: Yeah, I realized right away that it was more about who you followed than who was following you.
And, Jessica, if you watch the stats – the true “spammers” are the people who have almost the same number in each column, regardless of topic they’re tweeting about. They’re using bots to search for what people are tweeting about instead of actually being involved in conversations then jumping in to follow you in hopes you’ll follow them. So I stopped worrying about weeding out followers and simply kept an eye out for anyone I might want to follow or friend as some apps put it.
And haven’t the rest of you found that the best source of those is in actual conversations or off blogs I already read and not the follower list?
Oh, my first arm-twisting in a comment thread. I’m thrilled.
I follow Julie Anne Long, who is always funny; Meredith Duran, who blogs infrequently, so I want to know when something new is posted; Rachel Maddow, the only sane talking head on cable news; and Stephen Colbert because I need doses of snark throughout the day.
I have a twitter account now – but I don’t really tweet. I kept having to edit as I was constantly going over the count. I much prefer blogging where I can be as wordy as I want to be
I am so with you about not twittering. There are times when I miss out on some great news or twitter only book contest, but what I gain in return in time and pleasure in other things that I like to do …like read or blog more than makes up for it.
I don’t know if twitter will last, or if it is just a passing fancy until the next “twitter” comes along. Either way I’m not joining the bandwagon. And if I don’t get extra readership, I’m also ok with that….so I say “you go girl!”. I enjoy your blog posts so much better!
Having said that, I can see how it can be unmanageable. Fortunately I am not ‘in’ any group so can cheerfully avoid Romance gossip etc. I figure if it’s important enough, someone will actually macroblog it.
I’ve never been on twitter, although I’ve been tempted to sign up for it for a long time. I’ve resisted thus far because I’m worried I would get addicted to it and tweet way too much. With you leaving, it won’t be quite as tempting but there is still a chance I’ll try it someday.
Jessica wrote:
Well, I’m a “social media expert” in theory (I try not to discuss reality) and I can say that I agree with most of your conclusions about Twitter. Then again, I also find that I don’t actually participate in any social networking sites because I know what they are supposed to be doing technically and socially. My concerted effort to get a toehold on Facebook this summer so I could use it to launch projects in the future has resulted in a handful of friend requests from people I (barely) knew in high school and a dozen “I’m still breathing”-sort of status updates. It just doesn’t offer me anything that is as valuable as the relationship metadata I’m selling to them by participating in all the little games and quizzes that show up in my feed whenever somebody I knew ten years ago gets a new result from the “what lolcat am I?” quiz.
The only use I’ve found for Twitter is as an outlet for RSS feeds. Even that shouldn’t be necessary since Twitter does nothing that RSS won’t do by itself, but I have to acknowledge the size of Twitter’s audience and the fact that the interface for most RSS readers is a lot more daunting than Twitter’s. But most of the problem I have with Twitter is that the technology isn’t really designed for the uses people have applied to it. It’s a broadcast model that people try to use like it’s an asynchronous version of IRC; more than a cocktail party I would compare it to a mob of people standing in a park and trying to hold an intimate conversation with their 500 closest friends via bullhorn. This is where the @ and # hacks have come from, but Twitter is so far underwater trying to keep up with their growth that they haven’t had time to implement anything better.
(Though it might be kind of interesting to do a variant that is atomic like Twitter, but also topic-grouped like IRC…instead of subscribing to RRRJessica, I could subscribe to the open RRRJessica::blog or RRRJessica::academic and you could restrict access to RRRJessica::complainingaboutwork to only people who live on the other side of the planet. Anybody have a VC I can borrow?
)
Though I think it’s cool you deleted your account. You are so radical!
Karenmc wrote:
I aim to please! that’s an excellent list. I have no idea how you manage to keep the numbers so low, but I’m giggling thinking about what the string of tweets must look like!
KristieJ wrote:
You and I are on the same page on this point! (although I did wish you tweeted more. And totally off topic — that pic of you in white that Wendy had up from RWA — I think it was the night of one of the balls — was stunning. Hope you got a copy!)
Booklover1335 wrote:
Thank you! but I am sorry to say that I think the next Twitter is already here. It’s called Plurk.
Ann Somerville wrote:
Thank you Ann. I will miss you as well. But for me, while enhancing online connections, Twitter was not good for my RL connecting. This is down to my lack of self-control, but there it is.
Janine wrote:
I’m glad you said that! I thought I must be the only person who was going to admit it might be a problem! I do think it’s fun, and I think you should try it, just on a trial basis of course.
John wrote:
I’m glad to hear a pro put into accurate language the inchoate feelings I was having about it. But please don’t call yourself a social media expert or I shall have to officially despise you.
Carolyn Crane wrote:
LOL!
Aw, Iz sad nao.
But I can see where you’re coming from. Twitter hasn’t cut into my writing time, but it has cut into my reading time. I spend most of the time I used to read tweeting now. But I do like it because of the direct contact you can have with other bloggers.
I’m bummed that you left, but completely understand why you did. Hopefully, you’ll rejoin one day.