10 Days Without Twitter
June 17, 2008
If you didn’t already know, 10 days ago, I got tired of trying to use Twitter only to be greeted by errors. I have a strong Software Quality Assurance background and have a small tolerance for bad software, yet I put up with Twitter for almost 2 years. I had to call it quits.
This is not a post to bash Twitter as there has been more than enough of that around the web. I want to share with you what I’ve learned while being “away” from Twitter for 10 days:
- There is no replacement for Twitter. As I stated here, I didn’t have an exit strategy and that was for a reason. There is only one Twitter. There is Jaiku, Pownce, and Plurk, but these only try to be like Twitter. They do have their advantages in terms of features, but there will always be only one Twitter.
- I’m not missing much. I’ve been spending more time on Google Reader and Toluu, which is expanding my exposure to what’s going on in the world. I’ve also gotten into using Alltop, which is much better than I first thought. They’ve put a lot of good information in one place which is very convenient.
- I’m still participating in discussions. Yup, you guessed it: FriendFeed. I’ve been having live discussions during the NBA Finals, talking about Battlestar Galactica and that frackin’ 5th cylon, getting geared up for the upcoming NFL season, and getting exposure to new tools, by using FriendFeed.
- There are other ways to post status updates. These other ways are arguably better than Twitter, but like I said earlier, there is only one Twitter. Louis Gray posted a great article on how to centralize discussions surrounding your status updates using Google Talk and FriendFeed. I’ve been experimenting with this the past few days and so far, it has been interesting.
- You can’t avoid Twitter. When I decided to stop using Twitter, I recognized that I will see stories about Twitter, tweets from people in FriendFeed, and often be pointed to Summize results. It doesn’t bother me that I still take in data from Twitter even though I’m not using it. FriendFeed has taught me that I don’t have to use a service in order to digest data from it.
- Twitter is an addiction. I would like to be joking, but I’m not. Steve Gillmor was accurate when he described the removal of the Twitter IM/track feature as “removal of the heroin from the streets”. People, including myself at one point, have become reliant on Twitter for day to day activities and literally get the shakes when Twitter is down. I could go into a long analysis about how our behavior is similar to someone who quit smoking, quit drinking, or quit doing some other drug when Twitter goes down, but that’s for another day.
- I don’t hate Twitter. It’s easy to come to that conclusion given what I’ve done. I actually want Twitter to succeed. I just can’t use bad software as it damages my calm™. I still use Summize for some tasks. For example, I couldn’t find a FriendFeed room for Tiger Woods’ exciting comeback in the US Open. Robert Scoble tweeted that he was following it on Summize and I followed along, as I watched it on TV. The reactions were hilarious!
In short, the internet still goes on without Twitter. There are other ways to digest data. It’s also important to remember that one should not strive to replace Twitter if you chose to leave it. I also implore those who are addicted to keep Twitter as a tool that you control, not a tool that controls you. Let me know your thoughts.
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