Twitter-Quitter I quit Twitter last week. It wasn’t exactly a cold-turkey quitting because you can’t quit the bird site cold-turkey. The best you can do is delete your account and wait 30 days for Twitter to process your request. I like to imagine a “hardcore” Twitter employee, someone who sleeps at the office and never misses an opportunity to tell the boss that he’s the Milo Minderbinder of Tony Starks, manually printing out, then shredding every Tweet I ever Tweeted since joining the site in 2007. But in reality, I quit and all I got was this stupid message.
When I was in high school a new boy band emerged that everyone went nuts over. Before even hearing their music, I realised I didn't have the energy I thought I would need to invest in adoring them, so I quite cleverly decided not to like them. In advance.
I am technically on twitter - in that I created an account, but after going on it a couple of times in the early days, I realised I didn't have the energy to engage in it, so I took the same route that I chose with the boy band. A quiet but firm, no thank you.
What you don't know about that Twitter Quitter email is that it was *hand typed* by the very guy who will now spend the next thirty days shredding your tweets, one at a time, while drinking old La Croix from the 2018 Twitter Holiday party.
I admire your decision to quit Twitter. I want to. But I’m sort of hooked. I keep in touch with people there and want to keep those connections strong BUT I think the more Substack extends its reach the more likely I am to say bye bye birdie.
I'd be interested in your essay on social media. I'm doing a slow fade-out on Twitter, I think? Substack Notes definitely helps scratch the Twitter itch.
I speak for all your readers when I ask: What happened to your clown car?!
Apr 12, 2023·edited Apr 12, 2023Liked by Michael Estrin
I'm just about to join you on that flight from the Dirty Bird. I trashed two older accounts but kept my last account just get a front row seat to the dumpster fire to see what kind of despotic f*ckery Musk did next.
But in terms of Twitter's value to anyone with less than a few thousand followers, who foolishly thinks the site will help build that following, it's a Quixotic delusion. In the 8 years I've used that site, for promotion its been about as useful as driving down the highway at 100MPH and throwing business cards out the window. The vast majority get unseen and blown to the side of the road.
There are alternatives to the Dirty Bird which are quickly growing in popularity and are far better and less toxic. (And who don't sell data to the FBI, NSA, CIA & various nations around the world.)
I look forward to the day when Musk sells Twitter for a $1 just as Timberlake did with Myspace, while we Substackers wildly laugh at him.
It's hard to look away from a dumpster fire. I think that's a big part of it.
But I'm excited about the alternatives that are growing at the moment. What's REALLY exciting is that there's a strong appetite for ditching the ad-supported model. That's been the ascendant model for my entire career. I've worked for some subscription pubs here and there, and they paid well, while they lasted. So it's really heartening to see a return to a paid model, like the one I knew when I was a kid and it was a perfectly normal thing to do to buy a magazine.
Ha! Thanks for weaving my questions in! It’s kinda like seeing yourself on a billboard for the first time. You’ve all been on a billboard, yea? You answered my question, thank you. All about that moment something amusing strikes you and the process to writing about it later. I often miss the opportunity and forget it later. Gotta carry a small notepad in my pocket. Or maybe use a voice recording note!
Glad this helped! One additional piece of advice, Kris. Your phone is a great replacement for the notebook. Most people are always carrying their phones, so there’s no need to remember the notebook. Also, you can send yourself emails, texts, voice memos, or write notes in another program. I used to carry a notepad back in the day, but I usually forgot. The phone changed my game
3. Yes. 4. There's no right way to write -- hence no secret sauce -- but effective stories make you feel. As long as you can make the reader feel something (e.g., joy, sadness, rage, envy, etc.) you're in business. Luckily, there are limitless ways to do that, which is why AI will compete with, but never replace, human art.
I like this! A tip + a bold prediction that runs contrary to a lot of the conventional wisdom at the moment. At some point, I’m planning to write something about what I’ve learned trying to joke with ChatGPT about pop songs, but overall I share your view of these AI tools.
Hi Michael -- You don't want or need my congratulations on Twitter and what you decided to do. I hope that upon 30 days becoming 90 you look back positively on changing your landscape. What you are GREAT at is exposing the experience for others. I hope it goes smoothly. Some of the genuinely strange "mini-changes" like removing the w in the name and playing around with displacing the bird with the Doge Coin dog is just an observational thing. It seems unprecedented and hence probably one of those things if it was emerging in a family member or a loved one, we might intervene out of love and concern.
I happen to sit wondering what the mix of systems might be where I can still have an occasional connection to some nieces and nephews without the bird. Twitter became their place, I love them (the relatives), and the tech I might use is probably not in their wheelhouse or interest space. It's what makes this better than ever world still a little imperfect.
A story to illustrate the point. I am mostly retired but manage a private library. I also do training classes and the clientele shades older. It is not unlike when I used to host video calls for my greater family (maybe 40-50 on the call). Age range 20s to 80s but shading to the old side. When a session happens, a bit of heroics eventually leads to everyone magically getting on the call, remembering to mute their microphones, etc. The angst at the beginning is I hope it will go well. By the end it is happy it worked out whatever that means. What will always be so weird in these efforts is a handful of the participants, if they get the floor will rant about why can't we use ABC? They don't volunteer to make it happen, they merely reinforce their own bias and feel a throwaway attack at the flavor of tech we are using and how it's the wrong way to go and why can't the rest of you see the error of your ways. Human nature is weird. If you were to raise it (a big mistake) they would become defensive and ask why are you being so weird, I'm just trying to show you a better way and why my thinking is superior to yours.
Mark, thank you for this amazing comment! I always learn something from what you share here, but this one was next-level. Your comment about your nieces nephews reminded me of my own technological obstacles to connecting with my nephews. If I want to reach them, I need to play Call of Duty, or use Snap. We've created some wondrous communications technologies in our lifetime, but we've also put up a lot of walls around ourselves.
Thank for sharing the library story too! What kind of library?
First of all as Mom trained me, thanks for your kind comment.
This is a TRIBUTE TO MY ENJOYMENT OF SUBSTACK. I am on vacation and decompressing -- we have these means to connect and it can change everything if we figure out how. Comments on Substack are wonderful and feel a bit like community. I have blocked a few crackpots but it is quite rare.
My nieces and nephews happen to play basketball and Twitter is the place (or Titter or X or Doge Coin) -- I was on it mostly for those secondary connections. The artful dodge is if you are on a place like Twitter you might find, unexpectedly that someone important to you is rage tweeting quite unexpectedly about batshit crazy stuff too!
We have three largely grown up boys and COD and Snap and Twitch just made me smile THANKS TO YOU.
It is a private Genealogy Library that provides a place for physical books to supplement the online habits like Ancestry, etal. The best part it there are ten plus specific societies that house their collections there also. One day it is Czech day, another it's Irish day. Kinda fun when people ask and stumble upon a breakthrough.
Thanks so much! A long time ago I wrote a silly post about having breakfast. Despite some dietary restrictions what I marveled at is how easy it was to make something special@ By the end I pointed out that the King of England, the most powerful person on earth only 75 years prior lived in a cold, damp castle and despite a legion of staff probably couldn't enjoy a little mango cause he felt like it -- life offers us a lot
Congrats on quitting Twitter! I feel like it’s a cult that I know is bad for me but I still find it hard to completely leave. I’ve been quiet quitting it but I feel like it just isn’t what it used to be.
It's possible that I've been quiet quitting Twitter since before the term "quiet quitting" was a thing. But then I went and loud quit, which is the most satisfying form of quitting, imo.
Your essay reminded me of an interview I read once with the poet Ruth Stone. She said that when she gets an inspiration for a poem, she might be out hanging up her laundry on the clotheline, but she'll drop everything to run inside and write it down before it escapes her.
Dang. Thought I was early in the comments yesterday. Maybe I didn’t hit post. Love your secret sauce. I’m a note taker sometimes interrupting a conversation to write down an inspiration. I would quit all social media but Im still building an audience. I understand the complexities of quitting. When you hit the final button was there a sigh of relief, a shout to the universe, a sudden inspiration to write or an ice cream binge?
It's a great question. Quitting felt really anti-climatic. No rush of relief or inspiration to write something. Could've gone for ice cream, but that's pretty much my default mood all the time. I think it felt pretty muted because Twitter tells you this isn't even real yet.
Yeah, that's the challenge, right? Leaving people behind, especially when it's a large community of readers & fans. That said, one of the positive things I've found about newsletters is that people are more likely to engage deeply with the context you provide and even click on a link to buy a book, compared to social media's infinite scroll, lack of context, and shallow engagement.
Me too! I've had positive experiences 95% of the time. Makes the writing a lot more pleasant. When I think about Twitter, I wonder how many writing days I lost to it. Not just the time spent on Twitter, but the emotional hangover of being on Twitter.
I quit Twitter once. The sky was clearer. The cement was perfect for every move. And people seemed, for the first time, truly kind.
Then I realized I was just on vacation in California.
Grabbing the book.
Ha. Always looking for humor. I subscribed to you.
Thank you! I hope I deliver.
You are a wise and funny man. Thank you for buying NSFW!
When I was in high school a new boy band emerged that everyone went nuts over. Before even hearing their music, I realised I didn't have the energy I thought I would need to invest in adoring them, so I quite cleverly decided not to like them. In advance.
I am technically on twitter - in that I created an account, but after going on it a couple of times in the early days, I realised I didn't have the energy to engage in it, so I took the same route that I chose with the boy band. A quiet but firm, no thank you.
I like that! Out of curiosity, can you say which boy band it was?
Can and will! The New Kids on the Block. I stand by my decision.
Haha! Oh boy, that could be controversial for some people. But I back this decision!
Yes, Twitter, not difficult, took no thought, which is the same quantity of thought needed for using Twitter.
Musk is a ridiculously rich, odious person.
What you don't know about that Twitter Quitter email is that it was *hand typed* by the very guy who will now spend the next thirty days shredding your tweets, one at a time, while drinking old La Croix from the 2018 Twitter Holiday party.
I had a friend whose dating advice was always, “Just make a pass at him!” Eventually of course he made a pass at me.
The use of the past tense makes this comment a perfect short story.
I admire your decision to quit Twitter. I want to. But I’m sort of hooked. I keep in touch with people there and want to keep those connections strong BUT I think the more Substack extends its reach the more likely I am to say bye bye birdie.
Really good point! What keeps us there is a lot more about the people than the platform.
I'd be interested in your essay on social media. I'm doing a slow fade-out on Twitter, I think? Substack Notes definitely helps scratch the Twitter itch.
I speak for all your readers when I ask: What happened to your clown car?!
Some bozo totaled my clown car.
🤡 <-- Suspect at large
I'm just about to join you on that flight from the Dirty Bird. I trashed two older accounts but kept my last account just get a front row seat to the dumpster fire to see what kind of despotic f*ckery Musk did next.
But in terms of Twitter's value to anyone with less than a few thousand followers, who foolishly thinks the site will help build that following, it's a Quixotic delusion. In the 8 years I've used that site, for promotion its been about as useful as driving down the highway at 100MPH and throwing business cards out the window. The vast majority get unseen and blown to the side of the road.
There are alternatives to the Dirty Bird which are quickly growing in popularity and are far better and less toxic. (And who don't sell data to the FBI, NSA, CIA & various nations around the world.)
I look forward to the day when Musk sells Twitter for a $1 just as Timberlake did with Myspace, while we Substackers wildly laugh at him.
It's hard to look away from a dumpster fire. I think that's a big part of it.
But I'm excited about the alternatives that are growing at the moment. What's REALLY exciting is that there's a strong appetite for ditching the ad-supported model. That's been the ascendant model for my entire career. I've worked for some subscription pubs here and there, and they paid well, while they lasted. So it's really heartening to see a return to a paid model, like the one I knew when I was a kid and it was a perfectly normal thing to do to buy a magazine.
Spot on man! It time to return the value of content creation to the creators and away from the monster corps like Spotify, Amazon and Google. Here's a great book for you to check out: Chokepoint Capitalism - https://bookshop.org/p/books/chokepoint-capitalism-how-big-tech-and-big-content-captured-creative-labor-markets-and-how-we-ll-win-them-back-cory-doctorow/19723058?ean=9780807012659
It’s on my list!
Ha! Thanks for weaving my questions in! It’s kinda like seeing yourself on a billboard for the first time. You’ve all been on a billboard, yea? You answered my question, thank you. All about that moment something amusing strikes you and the process to writing about it later. I often miss the opportunity and forget it later. Gotta carry a small notepad in my pocket. Or maybe use a voice recording note!
Glad this helped! One additional piece of advice, Kris. Your phone is a great replacement for the notebook. Most people are always carrying their phones, so there’s no need to remember the notebook. Also, you can send yourself emails, texts, voice memos, or write notes in another program. I used to carry a notepad back in the day, but I usually forgot. The phone changed my game
Appreciate the inspiration through great writing and the tips! Write on!
3. Yes. 4. There's no right way to write -- hence no secret sauce -- but effective stories make you feel. As long as you can make the reader feel something (e.g., joy, sadness, rage, envy, etc.) you're in business. Luckily, there are limitless ways to do that, which is why AI will compete with, but never replace, human art.
I like this! A tip + a bold prediction that runs contrary to a lot of the conventional wisdom at the moment. At some point, I’m planning to write something about what I’ve learned trying to joke with ChatGPT about pop songs, but overall I share your view of these AI tools.
I just dreamt up a killer AI idea to write about. Now just need to do it justice. Looking forward to your post about ChatGPT.
thanks! i think we're approaching the point where we've done enough Hypothetical Picnics to have, what we might call some "learnings."
Hi Michael -- You don't want or need my congratulations on Twitter and what you decided to do. I hope that upon 30 days becoming 90 you look back positively on changing your landscape. What you are GREAT at is exposing the experience for others. I hope it goes smoothly. Some of the genuinely strange "mini-changes" like removing the w in the name and playing around with displacing the bird with the Doge Coin dog is just an observational thing. It seems unprecedented and hence probably one of those things if it was emerging in a family member or a loved one, we might intervene out of love and concern.
I happen to sit wondering what the mix of systems might be where I can still have an occasional connection to some nieces and nephews without the bird. Twitter became their place, I love them (the relatives), and the tech I might use is probably not in their wheelhouse or interest space. It's what makes this better than ever world still a little imperfect.
A story to illustrate the point. I am mostly retired but manage a private library. I also do training classes and the clientele shades older. It is not unlike when I used to host video calls for my greater family (maybe 40-50 on the call). Age range 20s to 80s but shading to the old side. When a session happens, a bit of heroics eventually leads to everyone magically getting on the call, remembering to mute their microphones, etc. The angst at the beginning is I hope it will go well. By the end it is happy it worked out whatever that means. What will always be so weird in these efforts is a handful of the participants, if they get the floor will rant about why can't we use ABC? They don't volunteer to make it happen, they merely reinforce their own bias and feel a throwaway attack at the flavor of tech we are using and how it's the wrong way to go and why can't the rest of you see the error of your ways. Human nature is weird. If you were to raise it (a big mistake) they would become defensive and ask why are you being so weird, I'm just trying to show you a better way and why my thinking is superior to yours.
Your tangent to teenage dating was fun.
Mark, thank you for this amazing comment! I always learn something from what you share here, but this one was next-level. Your comment about your nieces nephews reminded me of my own technological obstacles to connecting with my nephews. If I want to reach them, I need to play Call of Duty, or use Snap. We've created some wondrous communications technologies in our lifetime, but we've also put up a lot of walls around ourselves.
Thank for sharing the library story too! What kind of library?
First of all as Mom trained me, thanks for your kind comment.
This is a TRIBUTE TO MY ENJOYMENT OF SUBSTACK. I am on vacation and decompressing -- we have these means to connect and it can change everything if we figure out how. Comments on Substack are wonderful and feel a bit like community. I have blocked a few crackpots but it is quite rare.
My nieces and nephews happen to play basketball and Twitter is the place (or Titter or X or Doge Coin) -- I was on it mostly for those secondary connections. The artful dodge is if you are on a place like Twitter you might find, unexpectedly that someone important to you is rage tweeting quite unexpectedly about batshit crazy stuff too!
We have three largely grown up boys and COD and Snap and Twitch just made me smile THANKS TO YOU.
It is a private Genealogy Library that provides a place for physical books to supplement the online habits like Ancestry, etal. The best part it there are ten plus specific societies that house their collections there also. One day it is Czech day, another it's Irish day. Kinda fun when people ask and stumble upon a breakthrough.
Love your essay title so I subscribed. Always looking for positivity.
Thanks so much! A long time ago I wrote a silly post about having breakfast. Despite some dietary restrictions what I marveled at is how easy it was to make something special@ By the end I pointed out that the King of England, the most powerful person on earth only 75 years prior lived in a cold, damp castle and despite a legion of staff probably couldn't enjoy a little mango cause he felt like it -- life offers us a lot
Congrats on quitting Twitter! I feel like it’s a cult that I know is bad for me but I still find it hard to completely leave. I’ve been quiet quitting it but I feel like it just isn’t what it used to be.
It's possible that I've been quiet quitting Twitter since before the term "quiet quitting" was a thing. But then I went and loud quit, which is the most satisfying form of quitting, imo.
Your essay reminded me of an interview I read once with the poet Ruth Stone. She said that when she gets an inspiration for a poem, she might be out hanging up her laundry on the clotheline, but she'll drop everything to run inside and write it down before it escapes her.
Thanks for sharing that, Sherry! Glad I’m not the only who prefers fresh ideas. As I often tell me wife when we’re out and about, “I’m working here.”
I love whiz bang tools, they're fun, and they won't hurt your brain or end humanity.
Dang. Thought I was early in the comments yesterday. Maybe I didn’t hit post. Love your secret sauce. I’m a note taker sometimes interrupting a conversation to write down an inspiration. I would quit all social media but Im still building an audience. I understand the complexities of quitting. When you hit the final button was there a sigh of relief, a shout to the universe, a sudden inspiration to write or an ice cream binge?
It's a great question. Quitting felt really anti-climatic. No rush of relief or inspiration to write something. Could've gone for ice cream, but that's pretty much my default mood all the time. I think it felt pretty muted because Twitter tells you this isn't even real yet.
I quit Twitter in 2016. Remain happy that I did. But I also left behind 120,000 followers. Sure wish I could let them all know about my Substack.
Yeah, that's the challenge, right? Leaving people behind, especially when it's a large community of readers & fans. That said, one of the positive things I've found about newsletters is that people are more likely to engage deeply with the context you provide and even click on a link to buy a book, compared to social media's infinite scroll, lack of context, and shallow engagement.
That's a great point. I've really enjoyed the engagement with readers.
Me too! I've had positive experiences 95% of the time. Makes the writing a lot more pleasant. When I think about Twitter, I wonder how many writing days I lost to it. Not just the time spent on Twitter, but the emotional hangover of being on Twitter.