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Emma and Pete

Recently, I kicked the Twitter habit. It’s been about 33 hours since I removed the desktop client and fought the urges to to open a browser to see what’s going on. I’ve managed the first day of cold turkey.

Having mulled this for a short while, I think it was the right move for me – and this is the important part – right now. I’m suffering from a post-vacation fug that I can’t seem to shift, and I reckon this is part of the process of de-fugging (it’s a word, really). It’s like a detoxing process. Out with the ick, leave some room for something else, be it more ick or (hopefully) something better.

I don’t dislike Twitter. As much as I grumble about facets of it from time to time, it’s not an inherently bad thing. My issue with it primarily stems from the way I’ve applied it to my daily routine, and the subsequent effect it has on me. Spending many hours in front of a computer, you learn how to streamline things, how to make things easier. I’m something of a workflow nerd, I like to hack methods and routines to make ‘em run better. That said, I’m a creature of habit like most other folk.

Until recently, the morning ritual consisted of:

• turn computer on, consume meds (some days) – 2 min
• load Mail, let it chomp through the spam and download the good stuff – 3 min
• realize I’m not wearing the right clothing for the office environment; get trousers; put on trousers – 3-4 min
• get breakfast (some days); eat breakfast while checking email for Urgent Stuff and Broken Stuff – 10 min
• open Twhirl; read through overnight happenings; close Mail
• commence work (which is still a mystery, some days); get interrupted by occasional ‘ping’ of Twhirl

And therein lay the problem. The incessant ‘ping’. Switching Twitter off for a whole week was very useful – I achieved far more in that time frame than the whole month beforehand. Then I realized that not having Twitter pinging or bonging in my ear was actually quite nice. I wasn’t missing it. I liked the net result.

During the vacation, there were days where I was so stressed and traumatized that I vowed (threatened) to Emma that I’d close my Twitter account when we got back home. The reasons cited were extreme, but emotionally I was so exhausted that perhaps my true colors were shining through. At that point, I wasn’t getting anything out of Twitter, it didn’t add anything, and it had to go (I may have referred to the mass influx of clueless bobbleheaded idiots [thanks, Wossy] and used the phrase ‘sometimes it’s like pissing in a sea of piss‘, but I can’t be sure – I was mucho stressed at the time). I thought I was turning into some kind of dangerous sociopath, but apparently I’m not. Which is nice.

And now it’s happened. Twitter is gone from my life, at least for the time being. I stopped blogging some years ago when I’d run out of things to say. Now I’m drawn back to it. The main reason, I think, is I’m not limited to 140 characters and the words have more value. There was a time when my Twitter posts were nothing more than disposable ephemera, a way to babble into a box. Then babbling became an obsession. And now, I want a new obsession. Suggestions on a postcard, please.

Posted in Pete's blog by pete on Wed, Jul 8 2009

Last modified on Wed, Jul 8 2009