Goodbye Blue Bird.
Hey, from now on, I'll be totally inactive on Twitter.
I'll leave my account 'as is' with a link to this article in the most recent Twitt.
I'll not close or delete my account to prevent bad intentioned users to recreate fake accounts in my name and impersonate me. But that's all. Consider my account now as a ghost, only around to archive what was done in the past.
I already started to unfollow many accounts around January, I archived everything, deleted DMs, and over the last month I only connected to it to copy/paste news from my blog. So, I already was a zombie on the platform.
Why it took me so much time? Well, I opened this account back in 2010 and, over the time, it received the attention of 14K followers. I can't hide I'm writting these lines with a mix of proudness, embarassement (to share with pride this number of followers) and also a little pinch in the heart to leave this account. I'm an artist and I always wanted to expose my art, comics, and tutorials to the widest possible amount of eyes. 14 000... For an artist living of online patronage and donations... That's why you can imagine it was for me a super difficult decision to take.
I'll not write the "why" I'm deserting Twitter in the details. You probably already read many reasons to do so about the platform and its toxicity, social issues, bias towards minorities, political bias, nest to fakenews, home of the pro NFTs, bots making AIArt and always more excesses... My reasons are a bit a mix of all of that at the same time, and it's well enough. I'm tired and exhausted of Twitter. They'll continue without me. I don't want my art and data to contribute anymore to that.
It's also because I had a couple days ago a hard time to reread my words on this article I published last year: "How proprietary social-medias are shaping the future of Pepper&Carrot". I write on this blog-post my efforts to adapt and comply to this system, trying to get my piece of the cake by guessing the secrets rules of an algorythm that deboost or boost contents. Changing my format, my art style, anything to get the grace of a bit of attention of an algorythm...
It's never have been in my nature to conform into such a submissive position and it hurts me to read it. It feels like I was ask to sit up and beg to get my sugar, and I was in the process. I rebelled stronger against situations for fewer reasons in the past. That's why I'm not painting with proprietary software, that's why I'm not on proprietary operating system, that's why I don't sign usual contract with my publishers, that's why I'm using the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license... etc...
I realised this social network had a lot of influence on me. It was for years the place where I had the largest audience and the most of engagement. Nowadays, when I look around me, I see many familiar nicknames and avatars on Mastodon. I guess this is visible also by the large increase of followers on Mastodon (~ 22K followers) I received recently contrasting with the lower and lower engagement to my posts on Twitter.
That's why I'm ready to deal with the consequences of stopping the maintainance of my Twitter account. I'm proposing many other alternatives solutions to follow my work (you'll find links on the top right of this blog), and if you want a short introduction to understand Mastodon − the alternative I advice the most − check this video.
For a conclusion on Twitter, I'll abstract from my memory all the shitstorms and the dramas and focus on never forgetting the positive stories I experienced on it, the people I found on it, all the one I followed, all the one who followed me, interacted with me, shared and replied to my post over the last 13 years on it.
Thank you, I'm grateful for all the years of interaction we shared. Now let's build something better.
Have a good sleep, blue bird.
___
Note: This article is not a call to pressure any individuals or projects to follow my decision. I'll never blame anyone for being still on Twitter (or using proprietary software, Copyrighted license, etc...). I even think big projects like Krita, Inkscape, Framasoft should keep a presence on Twitter and remain active. Their presence is a necessity, especially on a network like that.
23 comments
David I am so sorry that in order to stand out in a very crowded place one has to employ attention grabbing tactics - but without it we may not have the beautiful and multi coloured plumage of the incredible birds of paradise or their outrageous and entertaining mating dances and behaviour!
The Twitterverse is like all social platforms open to all. You would be surprised to know how many deviants use open source programs like Krita for instance. Does that mean we must all not use the fabulous tool out of conscience?
It would've been enough for you to place a disclaimer in your bio pointing out who and what you support. By walking away you make no difference and as artists that is what we are really good at especially when our art is beautiful and uplifting to the human persona.
Face the storm. Become the storm - then steer the storm in the right direction. I hope you reconsider.
There is a good alternative to Twitter: https://spoutible.com, it seems to be a lot friendlier than Twitter and it also allows monetization such as Tip, Donate or Subscribe. Maybe it may be something to check out?
With all due respect, nobody has a moral duty to stay on a website that makes them miserable. Not even artists.
To be honest I was a bit surprised as well when I read your article about adapting the P&C format to be social media friendlier - it did seem out of character. Even as an amateur artist with only a few friends following, I could relate though, because I've also been through these attempts to maximize exposure. Eventually I gave up, rediscovering the pleasure to do my own thing even if people don't care. Easy for me to say though, with no livelihood on the line! So I'm happy to support any decision you make in this space. It looks like many individuals have experienced the inebriating highs of social media, but have ultimately realized that it has a detrimental effect on them, so you are not alone!
Instagram, Facebook, YouTube... for me seen that they have similar problems. Also they want to know EVERYTHING about their users only for ads.
Because of this I don't visit cites with Google Analytics or similar else.
Bravo.
It's not, unfortunately. The owner has a history of sketchy business ideas and he built Spoutible with some $79 software that is has never been tested at scale.
There is a lot of money to be made by harvesting data so there are a bunch of venture capitalists eager to take Twitter's place and all of them will take the same path as other for profit platforms: good to users at first, then focusing on business accounts and metrics to the detriment of regular users when investors start clamoring for a return, then abusing all users except for the ones bringing the most revenue and resulting in the best metrics.
I can't think of a better alternative to Twitter than Mastodon, or similar software in the Fediverse, where profit is not a primary motive. It's really what the internet should have been, rather than a handful of walled gardens.
You should to do that much earlier, when platform became sjw swamp, but after you signed public letter against Richard Stallman I realized such trivial things as modern agenda just couldn't make you feel uncomfortable, and this is sad.
I have no idea what you are talking about by "modern agenda". Seriously.
I'm also flattered to read an anonymous comment of someone still holding a grudge for this affair, it's usually nowadays attacks of ProNFTs and AI-Art defenders. Thanks for the nostalgia, that's refreshing!
Yes, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube are not better in essence. At least, they let me interacts with followers and let me follows other without having replies from total strangers or bots looking for specific keywords to attack or using quote Tweeting for negative reasons. Twitter is an environment that eases negativity by design, IMO.
If you want to get ad-free browsing and neutralize Google Analytics; you can use a browser extension like uBlock Origin.
> " the inebriating highs of social media"
That's a good expression, thank you. Thanks also for your supporting words. 👍
Thanks Jane for proposing an alternative, and thanks Arp for the info about it.
Yes, I'm not ready to dive into a new proprietary social media now. Friendly creators around me in convention tried to motivated me to be on Tik Tok, I tried to open an account but I closed it after a month. I'm happy I haven't started to get into the "Short" things; it's not a format I like to watch.
Thank you Ellen.
@West Indies Design: I'll not reconsider. I did that just for me to take care of myself.
I know it will make no difference, and I'm fine with that.
Obviously, I am about cancel culture! It's not a grudge, rather a grief. Remember slogan "Free Software as Free Speech". While supporting FOSS you suddenly joined that mob, who tries to make people speechless. I have no idea about NFT and AI, because I'm just outside of that trends right now. P.S. Thanks for allowance to leave anonimous comments.
You might want to look into ChatGPT to help you make cogent posts.
Une décision très courageuse ! Je pense aussi quitter twitter, mais la pression et les doutes quand à mon avenir en tant qu'artiste indépendant me retient. Mais c'est grâce aux collègues qui font, comme toi, ce choix que la situation des artistes sur les réseaux sociaux va s'améliorer.
Etre indépendant est déjà assez stressant, nous n'avons pas besoin d'un algorithme pay-to-win en plus :(
Merci, et je comprends très bien la difficulté et le sentiment. "l'algorithme pay-to-win" c'est très bien dit et trop ça.
@<b>Craig Maloney</b> Good advise, bro! AI assistance could be useful to avoid uncomfortable topics.
I'm glad you are doing what's best for yourself, social media are so exhausting. I think the only one I still like is tumblr, and that's mainly because there's no algorithm.
I'm always happy to stop by your website, it reminds me of the times when everyone had a personal site/blog instead of endless social media feeds. :)
@West
It is not David's role to go down with the ship. Political bias aside, Twitter is failing, and has been for a while yet. Something new will come along as it always does in our new digital world.
I agree. Twitter has been going downhill for quite some time now and I understand if people want to leave.
I mean, you don't even have to say 'why' you left Twitter, it is self evident. All the things you listed are the reasons why I won't engage in Twitter. I have an account but I haven't looked at it since a year now. Not worth the headache. Better to cut out bad influence from one's life. :)
Hi David, I just want to say that I support your decision for leaving Twitter. Honestly I thought from your older blog post, you’d still want to continue posting content on Twitter which made me scratch my head “why?”
I’ll make it super short from my perspective, around Nov 2021 I wiped my phone to install a new OS and ask myself, “should I install Twitter and Discord?” “Nah, I wanna try this out for a week.” For the first two days I feel really happy to no longer be glued to my phone. Then months later I logged off of Twitter on my desktop computer, I haven’t counted but I’m guessing I’ve only made 10 tweets in the entire 2022.
These actions allowed me to be better mentally and psychically. The number of reasons you’ve provided, I agree with. These platforms are designed to be addictive. It is also harmful towards younger generations.
I’m surprised that we both also started to unfollow a lot of users. It’s interesting doing such actions as it allow me to see the first 10 to 20 people are those who truly share similar goals. But anything beyond that, it starts to become off course. (I don’t know if you had a similar experience as well?)
As of right now, I have two choices, Broadcast mode or Inactive mode. Right now I’m in Broadcast mode which means I’ll no longer read tweets, make reply, check notifications, or anything else. I just log in, post what I make, then I log out. Really, part of me wants to just leave my Twitter account inactive instead. Because I feel like doing a small single thing on Twitter is giving them an advantage.
I’ll just use my Mastodon account since that has zero algorithm and no silly features like infinite scroll.
My question to you, and I really have no idea since I mostly log off of Twitter, when you were “zombie” mode, did anyone really miss you? I’m curious.
We are now living in the age were it’s really normal to say “I don’t use [instert social media platform here] anymore.” Especially in real life if anyone ask you, there is a good chance you’ll get a response “Oh yeah it’s understandable that you don’t use Twitter, it’s awful.” Sure you’ve seen news of a lot of people leaving Facebook but while other platforms such as TikTok is growing very fast. But at least we know that these platforms won’t last long (or maybe I’m wrong?)
Around the start of 2023 I’ve read a book from a professor Cal Newport called Deep Work were he argued that if the tool, such as Twitter, only provide little to negative benefits, then don’t use it. You may have seen his TED talk were he straight up say “Quit social media.” In the book he mentions how certain famous writers would not use Twitter because these writers understand by eliminating distractions from these platforms will allow them to make better and higher quality books. But that’s writers, what about artists? Later on he would mention that people who take his 30 day digital de-clutter from his book Digital Minimalism, artists would bring back using Instagram into their lives but only on desktop and not on phone. And it would be limited time such as an hour to get enough inspiration/data, then they would log out, making it an intentional use of tech rather than allowing the tech to control them.
With that said, I don’t want to force on to you or anyone else to read the books I’ve mentioned. If you are interested then by all means go ahead. Last thing I want to do is act like a “Mr. know-it-all” or I found a cure to your (or everyone) problems.
Because we are not close friends, I have no idea what your everyday life is. I have no idea what your personal and professional struggles are other than what you’ve posted on your blog.
But I am happy to support you through Patreon and what you do for FLOSS/Free-Culture Movement. I see you have a clear vision and you know what path to take. I wish you well.
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