A couple weeks ago I decided to stop using Twitter for a few days. A few days went by and I felt really good, so I kept going. It's been 2 weeks and I just reinstalled Tweetbot on my iPhone.

I really enjoyed taking a quick break from social media. I felt calmer, and my brain was able to relax a bit as I weaned off trying to turn everything in my life into a pithy tweet, but being off Twitter entirely wasn't good for me either. Twitter is where I talk to my friends, it's where I see things that make me laugh out loud every single day, it's bar-none the best way to keep up with things that are happening in real time, which you may have heard is happening right now. 🇺🇦

Being off Twitter made me feel more relaxed, but those chill vibes became less effective as I felt more out of touch with people who I interacted with primarily on the platform. I was spending more time in private chats with friends, but I don't have those with everyone I know, so I was really cutting out people when I didn't want to.

Also the memes are good.

My Personal Rules for Using Twitter

1. No infinite scrolling through my timeline. I will not mindlessly scroll through hundreds of tweets, I'm just going to have to miss a bunch and be okay with that.
2. Related, all Twitter visits should be intentional. I'm there to reply to my mentions and DMs, and then I'm done. Or I'm there to see some recent posts, and then I'm done.
3. No trending topics. This isn't an issue in Tweetbot, but the desktop site has them and I'm going to find an extension to just hide them. These make me angry every time, so no need for those.
4. Less sass. I'm not going to "stick to tech" but I am going to try and maintain a more positive vibe at all times. Sass and things I'm legit angry about will continue on this site like normal.

We'll see if I can stick to these, but I think Twitter will be a better experience for me if I can stick to these.