How I'm planning to use twitter 🐦

Written in February 2022, updated in March 2022.

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I’m currently aspiring to:

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A more detailed outline:

Just a few weeks after announcing my departure from social media, I've decided to step gently back into Twitter. This time with some ground rules.

I had my previous twitter account for several years, and when I deactivated it before Christmas, I felt quite disconnected from the community on there. I didn't like how I was using it, and how distant I felt from most of my followers.

I had my (now deleted, old) twitter account for several years, and I felt quite disconnected from the community on there.

Getting lured into the likes of “follow-sprees” (I think we’ve all been there) and similar games probably didn't help my cause. Nor did feeling like I had to post 3 times a day to “use Twitter effectively”, and that was even when I scheduled tweets.

Same with the scrolling feed and the oh-so-sneaky algorithm that would lure me in with the latest goings-on from the world, from whatever political situation was going on to celebrity gossip and other headlines – or trending hashtags (oooh, enticing) – designed for me to click and get sucked into a whole world of… more tweets and hashtags.

All of the above contributed to my feeling >frazzled< 😖.

And yet I've decided to make a return.

Here are the two ways in which I am setting out to use the platform, my ground rules if you will:

– I'll be linking my twitter to my micro.blog account I find myself posting more thoughtful short posts on there, as well as longer ones which are (in turn) syndicated from my main blog.

– Tweeting Any live or scheduled tweeting will be done via Typefully (or the native twitter scheduler). For example, if I want to share a little snippet/intro for a tweet before I share one of my posts, I can do that through Typefully. Again, this lets me be more intentional and not get sucked into twitter-overwhelm.

– I'll check notifications + respond just once a week No ‘follow sprees’ or getting lured into the bells-n-bright lights. I’ll only be using twitter on my laptop, not a smartphone. I’m also enjoying using Thomas Wang’s minimal theme for twitter, to help me tweet without distractions or getting sucked into checking notifications/scrolling/unintentional time on twitter.

– Retweets + following I’ve turned retweets these off for anyone I follow. And I’ll give myself permission to only follow/unfollow people + feeds that energise me, or I otherwise find interesting (see Peroty's 'rules of engagement')

– Preening A couple of times a year, I can see myself 'preening' my account, unfollowing folks who are no longer active/posting stuff I find interesting or energising or relevant to me.

So, in short…

In doin these things, I'm hoping to use my twitter more mindfully, and connect with folks more deeply and organically over time – just like I encountered with the micro blog platform I've been using for a few months now.

It's important to remember, selfishly, it's my twitter. With some ground rules and discipline to go with, I'm reckoning I can use it in a way that feels less frazzling, and more nourishing.

That's my hope, anyway.

So here's to using twitter more thoughtfully + intentionally! 🤗

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📷 image by Ravi Sharma (unsplash.com/@Ravinepz)