For the second time in my life, I am deleting my Twitter account.
Using Twitter feels like a chore rather than an enjoyable microblog experience. No matter how relaxed I approached the Twitter platform, the environment sucked me into a different routine of building followers; scheduled tweets; likes; and other distractions.
The more options one has to manage an account, the more opportunities one has to mess it up. I made the mistake of joining a #writerslift.
The result?
I gained followers and followed good folk, with whom I had little in common because, at this exact moment, I am not writing a book.
Twitter also includes:
- The “ordinary” man or woman - people who respond to news or publish genuine microblogs. Such users are hard to find.
- Millions on a journey of self-promotion.
- Other bloggers who want you to read their latest post but are not that interested in anyone else’s.
- Video ads.
- Writers/bloggers/others who pose an odd question to get engagement. I found it tempting to try:
If you were a ride-on lawnmower, who would you want to be owned by and why?
Twitter has improved in recent years in terms of fake/spam accounts. I only received one follow from a bot who wanted to take their clothes off for me.
In the end, I asked myself - do I want or need to spend precious hours using software and brainpower to build a follower count?
After all, the hours lost to follower building are lost writing hours.
I am also sceptical how genuine conversation can take place when follow/following is not naturally developed.
Perhaps I’m in error not to have a blogging plan, but let’s see what happens if I write for self-expression.
I have no doubt, through micro.blog, I’ll continue to meet some interesting people along the way.