When Twitter Attacks

[the_gneech]

The thing with social media is finding the right balance of enough people to follow that you're connected, but not so many you're overwhelmed, comfortable enough that it doesn't cause you distress, diverse enough that it's not just a giant echo chamber...

The past few weeks my mood stability has been on the vulnerable side, and I've found that more often than not social media (and especially Twitter, as it's far and away the most active form of social media) have ranged from wearying to infuriating. So I've been going through and targeting posters who, even if I agree with them, add stress, and quietly unfollowing them.

This is a tricky thing to do when I'm emotionally wobbly... the temptation is to go all Oprah on it. "You get an unfollow, and YOU get an unfollow-- EVERYBODY GETS AN UNFOLLOW!" But that's neither healthy nor productive in the long run, it's just the tendency-towards-implosion that emotional wonkiness creates.

But trimming the social media tree is a good thing every once in a while. There are enough stressors I can't control, there's no reason to hold onto the ones that I can control.

-The Gneech

Comments

[haikujaguar.livejournal.com]

Sadly, I have to find myself doing this a lot. :(

People I often like a great deal seem to use social media as a place to vent their negative thoughts. All their negative thoughts. Especially their anger and pettiness. It's like there's no filter... they go from thinking it to typing it without pausing to think, "does this accomplish anything beyond make me feel better, and maybe just telling my cat might serve the same purpose without polluting everyone else's day".

I'm not going to argue with them that they shouldn't do that. But I can't subject myself to it either, and if it's something they do habitually...

[doodlesthegreat.livejournal.com]

I've done that on occasion. Culled out any political & news feeds during the last election, though some of them I have added back since then. Reduced stress significantly.

[mortonfox.livejournal.com]

I've unfollowed more than a few people myself but mainly because they keep spamming the timeline with automated postings from Foursquare, GetGlue, Raptr, etc. I mean I use Foursquare myself but I don't send every single check-in to Twitter.

[hantamouse.livejournal.com]

I thought my 48 was too much and trimmed it. You've got ten times that. I can't even imagine trying to read that.