I can quit Twitter, but Twitter can’t quit me.
by that damn redhead on June 16, 2010
in Social Media, twitter
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Between friends getting married, friends passing away, getting used to a new schedule, and just overall life things, you could say I’ve had a lot going on lately. Sometimes, one can only take so much before wanting/needing to pull the plug on some things that cause more noise than signal in life.
The other day, after attending the funeral of a friend, I decided to quit Twitter for a while.
I’m quitting Twitter for a while. See ya.
Stacy Lukasavitz
damnredhead
Many didn’t think I could do it. I’ve tried to “take a Twitter hiatus” before, and have only lasted a few days, at most. This time, however, I was pretty sure that I was done spewing <140 character blurts into the ether for a while. I just needed my “Stacy time,” my time to be lost in my own thoughts without the internet bugging me or me bugging it.
I really thought I could do it.
Fat chance.
It didn’t occur to me until after I had posted the above that even when I have no intention of tweeting, I tweet anyway. I’ve integrated so many webby things with my Twitter account that it’s nearly impossible.
Hitting the “Tweet this” button at the top of an interesting blog post or article after reading it has become second nature to me. BOOM! There’s a tweet.
If I subscribe to a YouTube channel? BOOM! There’s a tweet.
If I just “like” a video on YouTube? BOOM! There’s a tweet.
If I check in somewhere on FourSquare? You got it — BOOM! There’s a tweet.
You get the idea.
try as I might, I realized I can’t quit Twitter for a while so long as I have things autotweet to it like 4sq & stuff I like on YouTube. 
Stacy Lukasavitz
damnredhead
Not to mention, that if somebody chooses to retweet (RT) or reply to one of my auto-tweeted tweets, it’s usually appropriate to say something back to them.
Oh sure, I could manually go and remove all of my Twitter connections/integrations on each app, but really, that’s a lot to go though if I’m only planning on a temporary hiatus. Plus, I’d have to re-hook it all back up when I came back.
So I guess I’m stuck tweeting, whether I intend to or not.
I guess I just find it funny — these days, there are still hoards of people trying to figure out HOW to use Twitter and why; meanwhile, I’m so enmeshed in it that I can’t easily quit using Twitter, even if I wanted to.
Has anybody else had this problem?!
I went on a bit of a twitter hiatus recently. I just had too much of that “life stuff” going on.
I didn’t have the overautomation problem you encountered, though. The only things that auto-tweet for me are Foursquare and my blog (and I’m far from prolific).
A series of thoughts went through my head as I prepared to relaunch TweetDeck: How are people going to react to me after I’ve been gone the better part of a week? How am I going to react to them? It turned out to be a non-issue.
I didn’t miss Twitter much, and my appetite is still diminished, but I’m chalking that up to life stuff more than anything else. I need to clear up a few of those distractions so I can get back to interacting with the friends I have made there.
Good luck with your self-selected embargo.
Todd´s last blog ..The Two-Dollar-Bill Problem
I’ve been “gone” IRL for the better part of six or so months, and not a single person has said anything to me about it, so that’s likely a “non-issue” as well. Like you and Twitter, I don’t miss it much, and my appetite is still diminished, and I chalk that up to life stuff also.
Yep. Sorta. Although I don’t have as many things hooked up to “auto-tweet” for me.
I’ve tried the whole “twitter hiatus” before, but it never worked out. Though, somehow I’ve just stopped tweeting as much over the last couple months… not sure why, but it just sorta “naturally” fell into place. :shrugs:
I’ve noticed that my tweeting definitely goes in spurts — I’ll tweet like crazy for a while, and then for a few days I might have just a few a day. Such is life.