Being anti-social
A few days ago I deactivated my Twitter account and most other social networking accounts. It's not that I'm vanishing off the face of the earth or anything like that - I've just gotten disillusioned with "social" networking. It has grown to be a kind of addiction; I checked Twitter etc. far too often, to the point of it being a distraction, but actually it wasn't a lot of real communication, it was more like people talking at you. I didn't find much "social" value in the whole thing.
I still program Perl for a living, and it'd be nice to see Perl friends, for example, in Frankfurt next year.
About all those CPAN modules - I've looked over the 100+ dists that are under my name on CPAN and have found that most of these I neither use anymore nor do I have any wish to maintain them. Most of them were related to an older work project and are probably not used outside of that.
There are only about six or so dists that I'm really using and maintaining. There are a few modules that others have expressed an interest in maintaining - mostly the Dist::Zilla plugins - and I've given them co-maint.
So, it's no big deal; just curbing my "social" presence.
(Actually, let's see about that Twitter account - as far as I can tell, you can still re-activate it within 30 days, so maybe the addiction might win... :) )
Years after reading (I don't remember where) the story of Blair Newman (of The WELL), I realize it probably made a strong impression on me.
Thanks for update.
I also deleted my Twitter account a few weeks ago, though I didn't announce it. This comment is my first public acknowledgment. I renamed the account before deleting it, though, so that if I did come back after the grace period I could re-acquire the same name if it hasn't been snapped up. (Twitter namesquatters? Why not?)
I still have Facebook and Google just because they're useful ID services. Twitter's also used sometimes in that capacity, and I understand it will be baked into the next iOS more. I might have to re-sign up for that.
I called Twitter a room full of people mumbling to themselves in each other’s presence. That’s nice sometimes. But I haven’t read my feed in months and this isn’t the first time. (I don’t feel any need to delete my account in order to forget about it…)
Yes, Twitter and all the social networks are exactly "people talking at you". Now you know, now you can choose - take it or leave it. There is nothing wrong, this is the way it is. Now that you realized it you have a choice and you are free. You are free to go and do something that you really love and that really matter with people that are around you, with people that do care about those things you love.
Suffering is given to you so that you might understand that there's falsehood somewhere, just as physical pain is given to you so you will understand that there is disease or illness somewhere. Suffering occurs when you clash with reality. ... It's a great thing you have suffered. Only then can you get sick of it. You can make use of suffering to end suffering.
I'm an introvert, so I have less trouble with addiction to social networking sites. Nevertheless, checking Facebook, Twitter, etc has uses from time to time for seeing trends/vibes and whatnot. Just don't use them too much that it disrupts daily activities.
You cloud just `echo "0.0.0.0 twitter.com" > /etc/hosts` and leave it there for a while... :-)