#304 Why I Left Twitter

I used to never block people, but when I discovered the platform had become basically unusable, I installed a browser extension that allowed me to block thousands of haters at once. I had probably blocked 50,000 people on Twitter in my last week on the platform. It was like a digital genocide.

Elon's problem with Twitter is different than mine was, because he uses it very differently. He spends most of his time just goofing around, but he is now goofing around in front of 120 million people. So, when he is high-fiving anti-semites and election deniers or bonding with them over there fake concerns about free speech, he doesn't appear to know or care that he's increasing their influence.

Even the best of Twitter was an opportunity cost because it diverted my attention from more important things. Twitter was making it harder, not easier, to do what I truly value—to read good books, to write, to meditate, to enjoy my family, to work on this podcast. And now that I've stepped away from it, I feel that it was definitely a mistake to spend so much time there.

I have a lot to say about Twitter... but I left it because it suddenly became obvious that it was a net negative influence on my life. The most glaring sign of this ... is it was showing me the worst of other people in a way that I began to feel was actually distorting my perception of humanity.

I've also heard that many people are interpreting my leaving Twitter as an act of protest over what Elon is doing to the platform—in particular, his reinstating of Trump. It really wasn't that. I do think Elon made some bad decisions right out of the gate, and Twitter did get noticeably worse, at least for me. But I'm actually agnostic as to whether he will eventually be able to improve the platform.

There is something quite reckless and socially responsible about how Elon behaves on Twitter, and millions of people appear to love it.

Without serious moderation, digital platforms become like 4chan, which is nothing more than a digital sewer. I'm told that even 4chan has a moderation policy. Hell itself probably has a moderation policy. So-called free speech absolutism is just a fantasy online.

My argument for keeping people like Trump and Alex Jones off Twitter is a terms of service argument and directly follows from the deliberate harm they both caused on the platform in the past. Here are two men who knowingly used Twitter to inspire their most rabid followers to harass specific people—not just on Twitter but out in the world.

There's just no way around it: Twitter was causing me to dislike people I've never met, and it was even causing me to dislike people I actually know, some of whom used to be my friends.

Being a so-called free speech absolutist at this point is nothing more than a confession that you haven't thought about the real issues. It's like being a second amendment absolutist who can't figure out why people shouldn't be able to own cluster bombs or rocket launchers for home defense.

I wasn't the most compulsive user of Twitter, but it did punch away my life far more than it should have ... The short of it is that I just came to believe that my engagement with Twitter was making me a worse person.

The problem wasn't all the hate being directed at me; the problem was the hate I was beginning to I feel ... It was more like disgust and despair. Twitter was giving me a very dark view of other people.

No one has a constitutional right to be on Twitter ... The government shouldn't be able to foresee Elon to put Alex Jones back on the platform any more than it should be able to force me to put Alex Jones on my podcast.

Lies that get tens of millions of people to suddenly believe that an election was stolen because they've been amplified by a digital outrage machine have a lot in common with shouting fire in a crowded theater.

When it comes time to decide which medicines to give our children or which wars to fight, there is simply no substitute for trust in institutions and experts. The path forward, therefore, is to create the conditions where such trust is possible and actually warranted in the media, in government, in pharmaceutical companies—everywhere that actually matters.