So, I have been off Twitter since September 15th. And it was mostly such a pleasant experience, that I am thinking about how to extend or repeat it.
Yes, there were several occasions in the last days were I missed Twitter, because I wanted to read others experiences or share mine. E.g. during the surprising victory of my dear FC St. Pauli over their local rival HSV. Or when we visited a mindblowing concert by Amanda Fucking Palmer in Hamburg. And the transition to a new team at Nordic Semiconductor continued, which I am really happy about.
But besides these small moments I missed little and gained a lot: I felt less restless, less driven to checking what is happening on Twitter too many times a day. And less suddenly pondering over thoughts that came out of nothing because I read something unexpected on Twitter. Yes, Twitter does inspire me, but too much inspiration makes me disoriented.
I did find more time to read longer pieces, e.g the great article on (not) avoiding lock-in by Gregor Hohpe at martinfowler.com, many articles on the aftermath of the Apple September event and I read through most of the introduction to ReasonML.
And I found more time to just do nothing for a moment.
What surprised me: It was not only the absence from consuming Twitter that felt like a relief, but also not writing tweets felt good: Repeatedly I thought „That is interesting, I am going to twee… eh, wait, no“. And it felt good. Freed from pondering whether I really want to share something and how to formulate it. I had not expected that.
I even thought about quitting Twitter completely, but I also miss the online contact it provides me with some people.
Where do I go from here: I do not know yet. I definitely want to give Twitter less attention. I do not know whether I will be able to achieve that by pure willpower. Or whether I will take more often a hiatus from Twitter. But quitting Twitter fully is also on the table.