miracleofsound

Gav · @miracleofsound

17th Oct 2016 from TwitLonger

On removing conflict & anger from your social media time


It’s one year today since I made the decision to make my social media experience a happier one for both myself and the people who follow me. Twitter is great – it’s a wonderful tool for fan interaction & sharing fun things or news. But it can be a lightning rod for conflict & chaos too. I know many of you can relate to that!

Last year it became the latter for me. I was always arguing pointlessly with people or going on some crazy angry rant at 2am after a few beers. The constant flood of rage I was seeing every day was affecting me and I was feeding right back into it by signal boosting it and getting swamped down into the muck with the perpetual mudslingers of Twitter.

So on October 17th 2015 I muted and unfollowed hundreds of people whose feeds were awash with rage and anger all the time. It was like flushing away a giant, stinky turd. It was all just... gone. I didn’t have to see it, I didn’t have to partake in it. It felt great! I was no longer making a fool of myself and alienating fans with my badly communicated, knee jerk reactive opinions on topics that annoyed me. My feed became a calmer, more fun place for everyone.

It’s certainly been challenging to maintain this year, especially regarding the cringe inducing circus sideshow that is the US election. But we’ve managed it, you guys & I. We joke around a lot about these topics but there has rarely been a time this year when we’ve fought. And when we do, we’ve been quick to let it go and move on.

Why am I telling you this? Because Twitter hasn’t changed at all. It’s still a minefield of outrage - both manufactured and genuine. For some people that’s fine, they can deal with it. But if you feel like it’s getting too much, maybe try doing what I did. Remove that element from your feed. If you can’t see it you can’t get annoyed by it. You don’t need to be a grumpy fuck always yelling at clouds. Who knows, you might just end up having a much happier time on social media :)

Big luv

Gav

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