This is an article I need to bookmark and read over-and-over (and it should be applied to all social media, not just Twitter).
Twitter is a parasite that burrows deep into your brain, training you to respond to the constant social feedback of likes and retweets. That takes only a week or two. Human psychology is pathetically simple to manipulate. Once you’re hooked, the parasite becomes your master, and it changes the way you think. Even now, I’m dopesick, dying to go back.
Twitter did something that I would not have thought possible: It stole reading from me. What is it stealing from you?
The gotcha I am having is that I am off Twitter and Facebook, but I still cannot read for long periods of time. I am addicted to constant tidbit entertainment, whether they be articles on the web or YouTube videos.
I suspect I am going to have to do something draconian to kick the habit.
Should you too?
P.S. Part of her article that is especially worth quoting (when she requested her password from her son after an agreed-upon month off Twitter):
Patrick disappeared and came back with a collection of Simone Weil essays. He said I should read “On the Abolition of All Political Parties,” but every time I saw the word parties, I should replace it with Twitter. He demonstrated, reading a paragraph aloud:
“The mere fact that Twitter exists today is not in itself sufficient a reason for us to preserve it. The only legitimate reason for preserving anything is its goodness. The evils of Twitter are all too evident; therefore, the problem that should be examined is this: Does it contain enough good to compensate for its evils and make its preservation desirable?”