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Birchtree
By Matt Birchler
I've been writing here since 2010! Back when personal blogs were all the rage. Kids, ask your parents.

How Twitter Changes My Brain

How Twitter Changes My Brain

It recently dawned on me that I've used Twitter basically every day for over a decade, and while I'm not mad at the platform, nor is it making me sad or anything like that, I just wanted to take some time away to see how I felt. I feel largely the same, but I did start to notice something that I had never considered before.

What Did I Notice?

I've suddenly become acutely aware that my brain is constantly processing the world around me and trying to crank our witty tweets. I never really thought this before, but something novel would happen and I would think of a funny way to talk about it, and then I'd tweet it. Sometimes it never came together and I didn't tweet, but my brain is always on the hunt.

For example, I walk my dog on a few routes around the neighborhood, and one path takes us by this fire hydrant with a cup-o-noodles cup and a fork stuck on top of it. It's been there for months and every time I walk by it, my brain starts thinking of a witty tweet I could send with a picture of it. I've never come up with anything really good, but every time I walk by it, my brain kicks into gear and tries again.

See also novel weather conditions, little software quirks, random things I hear people say…it doesn't matter, my mind is always looking for ways to convert my day-to-day experiences into tweets.

That's weird, right?

But Like, is That Actually a Problem?

I really don't know, but it's definitely an example of a way social media has changed how I think, even when I'm not browsing my feed. The one difference I've noticed since I stopped tweeting is that I let things leave my headspace quicker now. Since I won't be finding the most clever way to share that experience (and let's be real, "clever" and "snarky" are often interchangeable on social media), I can more easily let the thought pass and not linger on it. I think this is a good development

When Will I be Back?

No idea! I was planning on jumping back this weekend, but honestly, I'm enjoying the break. According to my stats, I tweeted 831 times in January of this year, or 26 times per day. Now of course many of these were replies to other people (people I like, it must be said), but even if 1/5 of them were original ideas, it's been a nice break keeping those thoughts to myself for a bit.

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