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Why I’ve Stepped Away From Twitter

November 7, 2022


It was a cold, wintery day when I finally gave in and created an account on the website that all of my connections and peers had been chatting about for weeks. Many of them had discovered it at a conference – South by Southwest – just a few months earlier and, while I couldn’t attend that event, news of the little “microblogging” startup was all anyone was talking about.

I was in Toronto. I’d gone to the city with my then partner, who was there for work. In between meeting a couple of my own connections, I was sitting at the desk, alone, in our hotel room and finally decided to take the plunge. It was January 12th, 2007. I wrote two very simple words, not knowing that I was creating space for myself on a platform I’d come to call home for more than a decade and a half: Exploring Twitter.

Twitter was different back then. We didn’t have threads, had DMs that only sometimes worked, replies weren’t integrated, hashtags hadn’t been invented. I often tweeted by SMS – and still have 40404 in my contacts today. The character limit could be challenging – 140 characters doesn’t go far, especially when you have to include people’s handles in that count – but it was part of the fun.

In the years since those first two words, Twitter integrated itself into my life more than any other platform or technology has. I can look back and see relationships, career changes, community building, travel, new hobbies, and so much more. I’ve used Twitter both personally and for work. The site has brought me some of my closest friends, connected me to family I couldn’t keep up with, and has been where I’ve turned to help process or share important, sometimes devastating news.

But all of that came to an end today – 5,778 days since I started exploring Twitter.

When my life shifted dramatically in the spring, I expected some backlash, some snide comments, some cut connections and some hate – and I got it. Not immediately, thankfully, but slowly and ongoing, especially on Twitter.

The attacks against me on Twitter were, especially compared to others, quite tame. Generally, they came in the form of being tagged in a tweet with offensive messaging, being followed or having a tweet of my own liked by an account with some form of vile name or handle, or if someone was particularly bold, a short, crude message in my DMs.

For a while, this would happen maybe 3-4 times per week. I’d spot the notification, but by the time I’d get the opportunity to click through and file a report, the account was already suspended pending a review, probably because of hundreds or thousands of similar reports.

Through the fall, though, these started to become more frequent. What was once 3-4 per week became 6-8 per day, which became 10-15 per hour. Worse, I’d go to report an account to find it was not only still active, but days or weeks old, its timeline filled with nothing but hate. There’s an ironic twist in that the platform once criticized for having too many bots, is now a platform where they can thrive.

So today, I’ve opted to put a pause on my Twitter exploration for the foreseeable future. My account remains active and public, its tweets remain accessible – but I’ve logged out and removed the app from my phone. Friends can find me elsewhere – many already have.

Looking back on 15 years on a platform I once called ‘home’ makes it easy to get emotional as I step away. I’ll certainly not miss what it became in the past few weeks, but I do miss what it once was. I’m hopeful – but not optimistic – that my last tweet somehow won’t be my last.

Be well and choose kindness until we tweet again.

Josie