I will be spending less time on Twitter. Going forward, my primary focus is to publish more often on my blog here and at EtherealMind.com and PacketPushers.net. They will be my primary focus for sharing ideas, thoughts and commentary and just a little snark.
It has been a good seven year run and twitter has lasted longer than I thought but it is time to move back to blogging at the best source. Blogging is the only permanent social media and will survive twitter/facebook/google plus. In almost every way, my own content is more satisfying and pleasing.
I would like to suggest that you directly subscribe to my blogs using an RSS subscription and a suitable RSS app. EtherealMind RSS Greg Ferro RSS and Packet Pushers.
I will continue pushing a tweet when I publish blog posts, in the same way that I do so on Google Plus, Facebook and LinkedIn but I won’t be engaging on these sites either. It possible that I might do some testing in LinkedIn but I find LinkedIn too intrusive to an enjoyable experience.
What's Changed
Own My Content - it has become a personal goal to own more of my content. That which I write, record and share will be on sites that have my name associated. 140 characters on Twitter won’t achieve that goal. Twitter wins most of the benefit from my content.
Distraction - Twitter has become a distraction for me that I need to control. The Noise-to-Signal ratio has increased over time. Attempts to change use patterns with less followers/different followers have made no discernible different. It is no longer useful as an information gathering tool or signal source.
Where once my time was well spent on twitter - fun, enjoyable and conversational, I do not feel this is the case now.
Curated Feeds - This article from Wall Street Journal is the final motivation to make a change. Twitter is moving towards ‘curated’ feeds where an algorithm will make choices about what I see from the people I follow. This creates an incomplete view of what you say online and I will no longer reliably see what you have to say. In which case, what is the point ?
Equally, that which I publish to share with you will no longer reliably reach you.
Note that this is a primary reason for not using Facebook. If I post something there, less 10% of people who follow the account will see the post. Its not practical to follow me on Facebook since you won't see most
Valediction
Lets try this and see how it goes. I need to be productive in other places and reducing twitter is one part of a strategy. I may occasionally popup since I will have twitter apps on my iPhone only just to keep an eye on things. I have a quasi-regular tool that tweets some snark and I will be tweeting about appearances and commercial events. I’m not quitting twitter, just scaling back to the minimum.
If you would like to engage/contact me then send me an email at greg.ferro@packetpushers.net and I should have more time to respond to you.
Vale, Twitter, at least for a while.
