5 reasons why I quit Twitter

(I know that at least two people reading this swear by this online service and won’t take too kindly to my bashing it…but if you’re reading – sorry you guys; I just had to write this one)


I’m willing to bet everyone reading this uses or at least has heard about Twitter, so I won’t get into the specifics of what exactly it is or what’s it for.

If you’re still wondering what I’m talking about, you might wanna watch Twitter in Plain English. It’s a wonderfully made video from the guys at CommonCraft and actually the reason I got hooked onto this what-to-do-online-when-you’re-bored thing.

Though I must say, and one must give it credit, twitter in itself is based on a brilliant idea:
Even though we have SMS, Email and instant communication, real life happens between blogposts and email; and you wouldn’t send an email telling your friends you’re having coffee right now. This is where twitter comes in, linking up your real life to your profile online and paint a picture of you to your friends in a rather unique way.

For me however, it simply did not work. And here is why.


1. 140 characters too long:
Technically, a twitter post cannot get longer than 140 characters. The idea is that you only make short posts – ideally just a sentence or two on what you’re doing – so that people don’t have to read too much.
Unfortunately, too many people get around this by posting links – which is heightened by services like tinyurl that compress large links – and ultimately leads to the information overload that twitter tried to prevent in the first place…and what we’re all too familiar with.


2. Similar alternatives present.
Though this might have been a recent development, social networking sites such as Facebook and Orkut also have a kind of ‘status message’ where you can tell the world what you’re doing. If you’re someone who already uses one of these services (like me), why bother with an additional online account to do the same thing? Its just one more thing to keep track of all the time.


3. Real life is not online.
This is the single biggest reason I quit. I don’t know how it works for other people but for me, “real life” happens OFFLINE…when I’m away from blogs, computers, and yes, even mobile phones.

For instance, the other day when I was out ice-skating with the guys would’ve been the ideal what-am-I-doing post that twitter looks for. But obviously, when you’re out on the blades, you don’t take out your phone to tweet “Just fell hard on the ice” when your priorities at the moment are elsewhere.

There’s a thin line between what can be online and what can’t, and some things just aren’t meant to be online.

And when I am online, what I do includes blogging, reading/commenting on other people’s blogs, getting banking done, socializing on networking sites and the like. None of which really carry a worth-while mention as long as I’m doing it.


4. Lack of “happening” events
This maybe a purely social thing…or it’s probably just me, but when you log in and read all your buddies’ posts on how the weather’s so beautiful at their place or that they’re off to have a great time somewhere; and then look back at your posts and see the only thing you’ve accomplished in the last two weeks is having 4coffees a day and playing a ton video games – it kinda starts getting depressing.

That, fuelled by a lack of interesting events in your life start to drive you crazy after a while. I mean come on, how many times can you tweet, “Alright, I’m off to work…again” and still hope to have a following?

The key is variety…and for a person with a routine lifestyle, it doesn’t really make much sense.


5. Lack of resources when you need them
Perhaps the best times when stuff happen to me is when I’m footloose – like when I’m off vacationing in another country. And most of the time, I’ve never had my phone or could access the internet when I could really use a tweet.

I mean, “The Eiffel Tower looks awesome” and “On my way to the Taj Mahal” would make really wonderful tweets and stuff I really wanna share with the people in my life…but let’s get real; you probably didn’t have internet access in your hotel room in Paris or on the train to Agra.

It’s almost as if there’s some sort of you-can’t-have-the-best-of-both-worlds curse; when something interesting does happen – I’ve no access to stuff online.


And I could probably list more, but these five are reason enough for me to stay off this teen-trend – and hope that the fans don’t take it too hard on me.