Do you often find yourself shaking your head in disbelief, questioning all of humanity and feeling completely out of place while browsing through Twitter? If the answer is yes, here are some tips that helped me personally to start enjoying the medium again:
1) Change Your Settings
THE most effective thing to do is to ALWAYS make sure you have your feed set to "show latest tweets first". This way you have much more control over what content makes its way into your feed. Only tweets and retweets of people you actually follow will appear, which drastically minimizes the likelihood of content from accounts outside of your choosing creeping its way in. If you choose Twitter’s other option, a huge chunk of what pops up on your screen will be whatever the people you follow are liking left and right. If you are truly interested and curious to see what a particular person is liking you can still check out their profile and have a look at their likes without being spammed by every single interaction each person you follow is having. Make sure to check up on that setting every now and then as Twitter will periodically switch it back.
2) Limit Who You're Following
Be selective about who you follow. No, you are not a bad person for not following someone back who started following you. You have no obligation to that account and/or person whatsoever. There definitely is a thing as netiquette, but the whole “I follow you, you follow me” culture is not part of it. If someone starts following you, one would assume they do so because they are interested in what you are tweeting about. If you happen to be interested in the content they share as well, perfect! But if you’re not, then that is just as good. Be genuine and don’t follow accounts or people you are not actually interested in. They will only clutter up your Twitterverse and take away space from what you actually want to see.
3) Make Use of the Block Button
With that said, also have an eye on who is following you. If you feel uncomfortable with certain people or you suspect some accounts might attract bots or scammers, get rid of them. I’m not sure a lot of users are aware of that, but it is fairly easy to get rid of unwanted followers. If you really want them out of your sight, you can just block them and leave it at that. You don’t have to be as strict though - if you block someone and then go in and hit the unblock button again, they will be gone from your follower list all the same, even without being banned completely. (By the way, in case you have second guesses or some form of guilty conscience about using this method: I promise you, more often than not, people won’t even notice they aren’t following you anymore. And if they do and truly are interested in your content, they will follow you again.)
4) Make Use of the Lists Feature
Another thing I believe a lot of people underestimate is the usefulness of Twitter lists. It’s the perfect way to keep accounts and topics organized and easily opt in and out of different content. If you are a coder for example, instead of starting to follow hundreds of different coding accounts and completely flood your feed on a daily basis, simply create a list for them. That way you still have everything related to that topic conveniently grouped together in one place, but you are left with the possibility of consciously deciding when to check in and up on all those tweets. You won’t get bombarded with all that noise first thing every time you enter Twitter but only when you feel up for it. Keep your actual feed small so that you won’t miss out on content that is truly meaningful to you and people you are actually wanting to connect and interact with on a regular basis.
Every single one of us is creating a bubble on this platform, that is just an unavoidable fact. But it is up to you if you consciously shape what that bubble looks like or if you just let it grow randomly. If you truly wish to do so, you can make spaces like Twitter into your own little happy place, find genuine connection, inspiration and fruitful exchanges. There is a way of using social media that will leave you connected with the world without having to sacrifice your mental health, happiness or peace of mind. Don’t let it overwhelm you or take you over. As long as you use it in a conscious way, it can be such a great place to learn and connect. As with everything, just be mindful about it and put your happiness first.
Top comments (23)
Thoughtful walkthrough...
1)it is probably a bit "dangerous", as it creates strong bubbles, even if4)can partially mitigate it :)Thank you, Max! You are absolutely right, it's a highly curated bubble this approach creates and one should definitely be aware of that. I guess it does require a more "active" way of interacting with the platform to make sure you get a glimpse of what is going on outside and to not fall into the trap of completely turning a blind eye on some things. But personally I prefer it this way over the other way around, in which you first get flooded by input and then have to filter your way through. It seems easier to me to start out from a "safe space" and to open the doors into "wild" Twitter from there (through lists for example) when I feel up and ready for it, if that makes sense 😅
I am so bad Twitter user that I barely experience the issues I read in these comments. "
TheMy bubble strong is" :DI rarely check it (Twitter) and actually adopted a heavy use of lists (basically through tweetdeck) for centuries now. This actually allows me to cut most of the noise out when I am not akin to endure it, but also to check a few lists that still expose me to "unwanted" topics (to snoop further bubbles) some times.
You summarize it very well,
don't have to be helplessly exposed to social media.I like that approach a lot, it sounds like it works really well and the "snooping bubbles" are a great addition also! :D
Tweetdeck felt even more overwhelming to me the one time I looked at it, but maybe I will give it another try now that you brought it up again. Thank you for all your input on the topic! (And thanks for the Yoda reference laugh too! :D )
Tweetdeck allows to have "topical columns": it is pretty easy to swap in and out lists, among other tools (searches, collections, etc).
Wishing a politically correct week, after an incorrect one? I can simply remove the old columns and add the new ones. Or swap columns position. Do I prefer to focus on React, followed people and Java? Same pattern. One column can be visible beside the other. And so on. No need to get mad trying to visualize lists (searches, collections, etc) directly on Twitter.
It is only a tool and should be tailored according to personal preferences, but can work well. (And I stole the Yoda reference from...)
Thanks for number 1; for some reason I'd never clicked that huge icon, but now I'm so glad I did. All the rubbish "other person likes this account" tweets are all gone! It's Twitter back to how it should be; tweets from people you follow.
I get the point @maxdevjs makes about bubbles but that's what the search, lists, following hashtags and explore features are for; to find new content.
So happy the tip helped you! I wish this setting was simply the default again. Just remember to check it again whenever you see "so-and-so liked" in your feed, that's when the setting switched back.
I think the point Max made is a really important one to keep in mind, exactly so that we don't forget to venture outside of our bubbles through the features you list every now and then. Balance is always the key! :)
Just to be clear, I exclusively refer to my personal perception and experience about the topic :)
Really great piece if writing and so helpful indeed. Much needed, I was waiting to read something on this topic so thank you 😊
I'm so glad you found it helpful, Dionysia! I know this is a very strict way of how to manage Twitter, but it works for me. I often struggled with the platform and felt like leaving it behind more than once (in fact I did actually abandon another account before), but shaping it this way made things a lot more enjoyable. I do hope some of these tips can help you find a happy medium, too. It would be such a huge shame to see you go from the platform altogether. You bring so much value (and laughter) to it. Don't get discouraged by the "wrong" people, there's a whole other world of good ones out there; they're just sometimes a bit more quiet, that's why reducing all that noise can be quite helpful in finding them :) Thank you again for reading and your feedback! It means a lot ♡
Your post inspired me to do a clear out and check who I am following and if I want to follow them anymore. For a while I have been having a bad experience on Twitter for many reasons but lately I am seeing the same concepts again and again.Pointless questions just to get attention and likes, bad marketing tactics of people trying to sell a course that has no substance and an obsession with numbers. Accounts that I don't follow or match my values and personality keep popping up on my feed also.It's been quite the mess. So thanks for mentioning that feature in your first point, I had no idea you could filter what you see like that. Your post was really a breath of fresh air
Oh yes, it always bothers me so much when Twitter changes this particular setting back to what they call "seeing top tweets first" because it makes such a noticeable difference! Try it out and see if it does something for you :)
I've seen you and others discuss this particular topic of the follower hunters and empty motivators quite a bit lately and it was definitely part of what inspired me to have this write-up in the first place, because I noticed that those people would barely pop up in my own feed while others seem to be bombarded by their presence without even following any of them. Personally, I am more than fine with the fact that I will be confronted with these kinds of accounts so rarely that it's easy for me to just ignore them altogether. On the other hand though, it did make me think about how much I actually block out and if it's maybe sometimes even too much and I end up being oblivious to things that I should be more aware of. As Max pointed out in another comment, there is a danger of over-censoring your Twitter bubble too. I think we all just have to find a healthy balance that works for us individually. I guess as with so many other areas in life, the answer lies in bringing awareness and mindfulness to the whole topic - to know that there might be more going on "out there" than your personal feed is presenting to you, but that on the other hand a lot of what is going down on Twitter and the likes often is only half as dramatic as it may seem and might not even be worth all the attention. I think the main point of this article was to simply show that you don't have to be helplessly exposed to social media, but that there are possibilities to exert a bit more control over it. How you make use of that is completely up to you and what feels comfortable and right to you alone! So I do hope you'll be able to clear up your account in a way that feels more inspiring and healthy to you.
A big reason for my feed being such a mess is the fact that I follow some of the accounts that interact with the accounts I have talked about. In the beginning the people I followed seemed harmless and well intentioned. Or maybe I was just naive. Now though it seems like something has changed since they've grown a lot.Or are trying to grow like others. I feel bad unfollowing them because I have interacted with them . Not that they will notice but there is a bit of guilt there. I also find the mute button an amazing feature to help stop all the noise. I got to a point where I dreaded looking at my Home screen on Twitter and just used the search feature to look for the people I am interested in seeing what they've been up to. As you said, it is important to have the awareness of what goes on in the world but I think when it comes to social media it is vital to put our mental health first even if it means being strict. The whole point is to have a pleasant experience and meet and interact with people who have similar interests and ways with yourself. It's ok to come across people that are different and may challenge you but if it's a common occurrence and it affects you, then it's when it becomes an issue.
I completely agree with you! What's the point in even using platforms like Twitter in the first place if you find yourself in a place where you start dreading to look at it. Your mental health does come first, always.
I was actually thinking of mentioning the mute function, maybe I will still add it to the list, thank you for bringing it up again! I think I tended to find that if you have to mute someone, why even follow them in the first place, but I will admit that there are occasions where this functionality comes in handy because sometimes it is not even so much about the other person or what they are tweeting, but about ourselves and what we are able to tolerate or deal with at a particular moment. So you're right, this is a good option to cut down on the noise too! I also completely understand what you're saying in regards to the guilty feelings of unfollowing certain people, especially if you used to interact with them. There is actually a point to be made of simply structuring your account the other way around: instead of putting so much control and filtering on who you are following, you could just utilize lists for easy access to the people and parts of Twitter you feel most comfortable with. That way you can simply bypass your actual feed on days you're not up for it and jump right into your more curated lists.
I also wouldn't be too harsh on others and yourself though, people are complex creatures and there is a possibility that some of those who you experienced as being genuine at first and who now seem to change their ways still do so from a place of good intention and are just lagging a broader view of what the implications of their actions are. Engaging in constructive conversations with these people is important too, so maybe completely leaving all of them behind doesn't even have to be, but as you said it so perfectly, "if it's a common occurrence and it affects you, then it's when it becomes an issue", and that's when you should put your sanity first and do whatever you need to do for yourself!
I've recently decided to take a break from Twitter to see if it makes me feel better about the world. And my current conclusion is it does, so not sure if I will go back.
If I do I will definitely check out the "show latest tweets first" feature which I was unaware of. Thanks 👍
I wholeheartedly understand that and have been on Twitter breaks myself. It can become so overwhelming sometimes and I have definitely experienced growing feelings of anxiety and hopelessness about the state of the world based on my social media consumption in the past too. On the other hand, Twitter in particular has also brought so many incredible connections and relationships into my life over the past few years that I can vouch for the fact that there is another side to it as well. I do hope you will give it a chance again some day! And definitely check the "latest tweets" feature, it makes a huge difference! Thank you so much for reading and leaving your feedback!
Your article is so great and useful, Meike! <3 And it made me think now... Usually, If my new follower is a dev I always follow them back and I can't see what they tweet as I use my lists always. So thinking now, why I follow them back? Maybe to cheer them up? :D Because most of them are newbies? It's silly...
So I agree about the 4th part. I have several lists of people I like to read, people who are amazing devs, Vue devs and etc, and this is the best way for me to use Twitter and helps to save time a lot:)
Thank you so much, Thea! <3 Actually, I love that you follow other devs back, especially under the aspect that you probably do so because you want to encourage them and make them feel welcomed in the community (especially people who are new to it). [Wow, this makes me nostalgic, thinking of when we met on Twitter and how you were one of the very first people I connected with. Thank you. ♥] This part is not silly at all! Engaging in these conversations, I have started to think a lot about my approach to Twitter too, and maybe I am sometimes actually a bit too strict. I really like the idea of utilizing lists even more, the way you and Max do, so that the whole following process isn't even that much of an important topic anymore. Thank you so much for sharing these infos about your way of using the platform! :)
Thanks for writing this! I had forgotten about or just didn't think to do a lot of these things. Seeing a post with tips like this all grouped together is really handy and I wasn't aware that Twitter periodically changed the latest tweets setting. I've just checked mine and sure enough, it wasn't set to latest tweets even though I changed it months ago.
It took me a good while to figure these things out myself, so I'm more than glad to be able to share these tips, as I know not all of them are super apparent. I'm so glad you find them useful too! The fact that twitter is constantly changing the feed setting back is more than annoying, but checking up on it is oh so worth it 😅 Thanks for reading and leaving your comment! :)
Step 1: Delete your account and never look back.
Also an option. Not much manoeuvring necessary after that^^
4) I use lists a lot! That’s a great feature on Twitter.
3) I blocked no one on Twitter but I muted a lot of accounts and put these on a private lists.
I can add something for all Tweetbot users:
Mute tweets in Tweetbot by regular expressions
manuel ・ Jun 21 '19 ・ 2 min read