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The state of Twitter/𝕏 - How to achieve Zen
12 months ago
I hear people ramble about Twitter/𝕏 a bunch. Hate, ragebait, etc. But I don't see it. My twitter feed is pure art and it is a joy to browse. If you're seeing this content, it's because you're following political accounts that want you to be miserable. Even if they are screenshooting or QRTing icky content to dunk on it, they're still sharing and boosting that content and taking a toll on your mental health. Rather than abandon a platform that has a huge user base and great content, you're better off cutting those people out of your feed.
"But Elon is a bad person!" you might say. Every social media site is owned by billionaires. All of them. And they're all bad people. Elon is just public about it. Just because you don't constantly hear about the terrible things other billionaires are doing doesn't mean they're not doing them or using their platforms to influence you in other ways.
The style of Twitter/𝕏 is simply not suited for politics. The format is about one-to-many. There's no room for nuance in short tweets so discourse is limited to shallow zingers. It is built for soap boxing. You may follow a lot of smaller accounts, but many of those accounts fill their feed by tweeting from larger accounts. These big accounts shape their feed by blocking dissent and hiding replies so you get polarized echo chambers. If you even attempt to engage with an account you disagree with in any way besides QRT/screenshooting, all you're going to do is get blocked by the poster and their followers and end up shadowbanned yourself such that your message reaches no one. It's not worth engaging.
Following from above, this is not a problem unique to Twitter/𝕏 but it is inherent in the format. Bluesky and Mastodon fall into the same traps. Bluesky may not have shadowbanning yet, but they inevitably will resort to it when the platform grows bigger. Mastodon applies shadow bans to entire servers. There is no escaping this problem. This specific style of social media is poisoned. Most are to be honest, but that's a longer rant. I wish more people would understand this point and stop attempting to use Twitter for politics or activism. Activism needs to move to platforms that are not controlled by billionaires or easily manipulated by governments.
That said, Twitter/𝕏 is still very useful. First, you have to switch to the following tab. The "For You" tab is garbage. At least Twitter gives you this option. Facebook/Youtube/TikTok do not. You have to practice some discipline. If someone is polluting your feed with rage bait, you can go to their profile and disable retweets. This way you will still see their personal posts. If that isn't enough, then unfollow. Muting/blocking the big accounts posting the bad content doesn't do anything. If you're not following them, they're not the ones bringing the content into your feed. You have to address the people that are. They will never stop finding rage bait to bring to you if you don't cut them out. Also use an adblocker. uBlock origin is wonderful.
These steps extend beyond just this one social media site. Follow these steps and you will improve your quality of life!
"But Elon is a bad person!" you might say. Every social media site is owned by billionaires. All of them. And they're all bad people. Elon is just public about it. Just because you don't constantly hear about the terrible things other billionaires are doing doesn't mean they're not doing them or using their platforms to influence you in other ways.
The style of Twitter/𝕏 is simply not suited for politics. The format is about one-to-many. There's no room for nuance in short tweets so discourse is limited to shallow zingers. It is built for soap boxing. You may follow a lot of smaller accounts, but many of those accounts fill their feed by tweeting from larger accounts. These big accounts shape their feed by blocking dissent and hiding replies so you get polarized echo chambers. If you even attempt to engage with an account you disagree with in any way besides QRT/screenshooting, all you're going to do is get blocked by the poster and their followers and end up shadowbanned yourself such that your message reaches no one. It's not worth engaging.
Following from above, this is not a problem unique to Twitter/𝕏 but it is inherent in the format. Bluesky and Mastodon fall into the same traps. Bluesky may not have shadowbanning yet, but they inevitably will resort to it when the platform grows bigger. Mastodon applies shadow bans to entire servers. There is no escaping this problem. This specific style of social media is poisoned. Most are to be honest, but that's a longer rant. I wish more people would understand this point and stop attempting to use Twitter for politics or activism. Activism needs to move to platforms that are not controlled by billionaires or easily manipulated by governments.
That said, Twitter/𝕏 is still very useful. First, you have to switch to the following tab. The "For You" tab is garbage. At least Twitter gives you this option. Facebook/Youtube/TikTok do not. You have to practice some discipline. If someone is polluting your feed with rage bait, you can go to their profile and disable retweets. This way you will still see their personal posts. If that isn't enough, then unfollow. Muting/blocking the big accounts posting the bad content doesn't do anything. If you're not following them, they're not the ones bringing the content into your feed. You have to address the people that are. They will never stop finding rage bait to bring to you if you don't cut them out. Also use an adblocker. uBlock origin is wonderful.
These steps extend beyond just this one social media site. Follow these steps and you will improve your quality of life!
Equivalent "following" feed on Facebook is Feeds (has a little clock at the bottom of its icon). Pin it to your menu bar if its hidden away in the menu. You have the option for all, favourites, friends, groups and pages.
For Youtube is the subscriptions page. I wish there is a dedicated page for community updates though, rather than them being mixed with the Home feed. PocketTube allows grouping of subscriptions by tagging them.