Something has been bothering me about Twitter lately. It has nothing to so with the service, the people I follow, or those who follow me, I think it has something to do with establishing the right atmosphere for me to be productive. I have found it too easy to get caught up in the stream, distracted, but also disconnected. Wanting to be there so I don’t miss anything, but at the safe time wishing I could tear myself away.
It’s not a good feeling. It’s not a healthy state of mind.
And as much as I rely on Twitter to keep me updated, I can’t have it pull me away from the things I that I know mean more and matter more to me. I took a break this weekend from working on Using WordPress. I didn’t really think about it. I didn’t start on Chapter 12 or record anything. I recharged and reflected.
I realized during this time that while I can hammer out a chapter in a day, I’ve been having trouble hammering out a single post a day. I’ve shrugged off considering or commenting on topics or issues I would have jumped on before. And I had to ask myself why.
I remember when I would post 3, 4, 5 times a day. I would read through my feeds and find an easy dozen things I was interested in and several of those would go into posts.
I haven’t been doing that lately. I haven’t been doing that, and I don’t like it.
Tonight, after realizing that gazing into my columns of Twitter lists and groups was hurting more than helping me, I thought that LazyFeed and RSS could fit the void. I realized as well though that my News list on Twitter (it’s public feel free to follow it) was just as important to me as RSS was. The conundrum didn’t last long, the single column mode in TweetDeck does just fine.
Is this a Twitter backlash? Could I be the start of a new trend in backing away from Twitter a bit? I doubt it.
To be clear, I’m not abandoning Twitter or deleting my account. I’ll still keep up and chime in from time to time. What I’m doing is realizing that by watching the flow of others go by, I was somehow losing sight of myself.
And I have far, far too much going on to lose sight of myself, that’s for sure.
Tris Hussey is a writer, teacher, blogger, and speaker on all facets of Internet life, WordPress, and social media. If you are interested in having Tris speak, teach, lead a workshop or consult for you, feel free to email tris [at] trishussey [dot] com.
{ 2 trackbacks }
{ 0 comments… add one now }