Yesterday, I abandoned my personal account at twitter. I will, there is no hurry, also abandon my longboarding diary at twitter. Hopefully, I can transfer at least some of the content.
Hate speech, conspiracy activism, outright lies and a manipulative opportunism – all reasons for a bad gut feeling in the past. With the war in Ukraine and the suicide of Austrian doctor Lisa-Maria Kellermayr, the level has deteriorated further and it is now what it is. Time to go.
What remains is a longing for dignity and decency, for truth and clarity, which will probably have to seek other forms of expression.
People are group beings and community can only function through public spirit. In this respect, the easy-to-use social media are charming and lead to new forms of networking. At the same time, they lead individuals to only loose temporary networks and avoid people having to justify their opinions in communities. So you no longer have to campaign to be heard, and you don’t have to face a best-person selection, as you do in formal social groups such as a club or a political party.
Ultimately, this leads to a cacophony in the social media.
You don’t have to do that to yourself, and in my opinion it’s justified not just to withdraw, but to use other forms of social networking.
Maybe it’s just utopia, but if enough people joined in, Twitter would become the medium for the dullards, Instagram the medium for the narcissists, and the majority would simply leave it alone…
Because what you can’t change, you just have to leave out, isolate and leave behind.