I ran a twitter account with significant following last week. You could do better than me, should you get the chance.
Lessons learned
Caring too much paralyzed me, while caring too little may have portrayed me as a clown. While I’d rather be known as a clown than sacrifice my opportunity, you might not feel the same.
The idea is much more exciting than the reality. Normalcy crept in quickly, the dozens of notifications becoming the new baseline. In fact, I found myself craving the dopamine hit, and not receiving it regardless of whether or not that notification count was climbing.
It doesn’t matter. Toward the end of my stint, I realized that not only do I not give a shit but no one else does. It’s a social media account on a platform known for uneducated depravity.
I found it difficult to be thoughtful, and tempting to be dismissive. I felt that I would get more engagement by ragging on someone’s opinion, rather than encouraging a thoughtful dialogue.
The idea of dialogue in open forum feels more high stakes, and I appreciated the accountability.
Challenges Faced
What to post. I was not struck with the inspiration I was hoping for. Ideas did not flow onto the account, and I was paralyzed at times.
Thoughtlessness is not creativity. Without an idea of how to spur engagement, I posted drivel. No one cared, including myself enough to think intentionally.
Negativity is met with negativity, while fun is not necessarily mirrored. I found moments of my good times were authentic, yet were only rarely met with engagement. Negativity, however, blew up my phone. The “So and So liked a reply to your message” notification is evil. It snuck into my dopamine hit as easily if not more so than positive engagement.
Future Plans
None. I don’t know if I want to be intentional about social media right now, and so I might just get rid of the platform. It did give me some anxiety, but was a welcome challenge in the moment. I supposed I’d like to end this section with something concrete. I would like that, but I would be coming to a conclusion for the sake of it.
I'd recommend that you try this out.
I'm certainly not worse off for it.