Do you ever think of unplugging from twitter.

Honestly, I'm considering unplugging from twitter for a bit. There's just too much negativity lately. First there was ferguson, then this Zoe Quinn stuff going on and no one knows what happened and didn't happen (if she did do what she's accused if, that's messed up. But we don't know what's true and what's not and wether or not we should care) and there's just a lot of negativity and hate going on right now in my feed. And it suck because even members of giantbomb (Alex and Patrick) are contributing to this negativity lately, particularly Alex. )

And honestly it's all not helping my depression non too much also .

So do you guys ever consider just unplugging from social media ?

This is the exact reason why I don't have a Twitter account. I try to avoid shit like this as much as possible. I've got enough stuff to deal with in real life, the last thing I need is internet drama making things even more complicated. Although I do have a Facebook account and use it pretty much every day, the last few months has made me seriously consider deactivating it. I'm just sick of all the BS.

The only reason to bother with twitter is if you have friends who you need it to stay in contact with.

If you can switch them to any other form of messaging, I'd get off it.

I only mildly use it for looking at tweets by the Giant Bomb guys.

I say unplugging from Twitter sounds like a fine idea. It's mostly all bullshit anyway.

Stop following such account's then? This is why I switched off Facebook because people who I knew as friends and their families annoyed the hell out of me with all sorts. Now on Twitter I only follow friends and people who are fine and do not depress me. As with Facebook the bug is you have to be friends with everyone who is friends in real life, twitter it is not as much the same bug so I can avoid such people.

Stop following news feeds and stop following people who are "off colour" or such. It is the same with real life I cut out the people who annoy me. I was friends with this dude that turned out to be an Neo Nazi and the stuff he said about Jews was terrible.....at the same time I had a Jewish Girlfriend.......one of them had to go Naturally. I never talk to the Neo Nazi guy and I do not talk to my Ex either and my world is better for both.

Nah. For all of the shit that gets slung, I find it worthwhile overall. If there are people that I find particularly ploblematic, I either block or mute them.

I never really got onto Twitter much outside of E3 and the occasional spell where I'd check it on a daily basis for a while before I dropped it cold turkey. Not many of my friends use Twitter much anyway, it's just another way to get some information from gaming personalities/companies about various things for me.

Facebook though, I've thought about it a few times until I just took some time away from it on my own and limiting my time with it (without deactivating my account). If there's a hot button issue that friends/family are getting up in arms about, I typically never engage with it because it's not worth the frustration.

A lot of the people I follow are either slowing down or taking breaks themselves, so I've been considering it. Dan Ryckert's tweets are so good, though.

My remedy was to never sign up on twitter in the first place.

I'm not plugged into Twitter and I rarely log into Facebook so...I guess it isn't something I think about.

Nah

The problem is slot if tweets I'm getting that are negative are FROM the giantbomb guys like Alex and Patrick. Alex in particular makes it almost a habit to post depressing shit or be,well , a colossal bummer

Although I enjoy what a few people have to say on Twitter, it's probably best that all of those people delete their accounts, for the sake of their own mental well-being.

I kind of have. When I signed up for a new phone without a data plan I didn't bother installing it again. The front page of Giant Bomb is all the Twitter I need.

I don't have a twitter, and only look at it when crazy shit starts to happen.

@raven_sword: I wanted to change how site is displayed on my monitor, you can actually use ad block to do some layout changes including blocking the front page tweets from showing for you, if that is something you are wanting to do.

I quit twitter a long time ago.

1) everyone spunds like an entitled child

2) everyone thinks they're so funny/insightful

3) half the positive comments are interpeted as negative, because, well, you know

4) it's embarassing, and makes you dislike people you want to like

Not a fan! :S but, all the power to you if you enjoy it.

I had a Twitter account a few years ago that I made to follow some dumb, joke accounts (Death Star PR, Petermolydeux, etc), but it felt kinda pointless after a while so I closed the account. I tried getting back into it like right before all the Zoe Quinn bullshit went down (perfect fucking timing, right?), but that last maybe a few days before it dawned on me that I just don't care about anyone enough to keep up with them or their bullshit on Twitter so I closed the account again and ain't lookin back.

More or less the same general story with Facebook except once I closed the account god knows how many years ago (4ish?), I never bothered with it again. I'm well aware of the benefits that Facebook can provide (reconnecting with old friends, potentially easier to organize parties and whatnot, etc etc), but I felt like anyone who matters in my life can contact me by picking up a phone and taking the 15 seconds required to hit like 2-3 buttons tops and/or I could do the same.

To be honest, I feel like it's incredibly easy to live without social media. Granted, I've never been one who feels the need to spend the night out every chance I get so maybe that has something to do with it, but still, I'm happy with the way things are now.

I never understood Twitter to be honest. I barely use mine as a result.

Go for it. Unplug. Most worthwhile stuff makes it elsewhere in some format.

These days I read tweets, but I don't tweet.

There's a lot of things I love about twitter, (frankly despite the character limit, it's better place to talk about ideas than a lot of social media networks) but when negative things happen on there it can turn so quickly into an overwhelming insatiable maelstrom, it just makes the service not worth the aggravation imo.

Nah. As far as world news like Ferguson is concerned, it was the best way to get news about what was going on. Instead of having to make checking a news site part of my daily routine, just checking Twitter (which I would do anyway) keeps me informed of what's happening in the world. It's also fantastic to keep up on what's going on with the sites and YouTube channels I follow, like if Giant Bomb goes live with a random show or something like that.

The whole Zoe Quinn thing sucked, as did the Giant Bomb hiring fiasco, but at that point it made more sense to just not check my feed as much until it all blew over. If that doesn't help, it's easy enough to unfollow someone if they're filling my feed with something I'd rather not see. Honestly, I'd rather trim 3/4 of my following list to get away from negativity than to check out entirely.

I just never made an account. Still not tempted to.

I dunno, I preferred when celebrities were just people in movies or who did concerts. Actually hearing what some of these people have to say just kills their mystique for me, or has a negative impact on my perception of these otherworldly people. Even the brief glimpses of Staff Tweets on the front page is more than enough. Do I really need to know that some greeters on Jeff's flight sound kind of condescending?

No. The answer is no for nearly all tweets.

No, but I also only use it like once a week

The two things you brought up are pretty much why I get so conflicted about possibly using Twitter less or even not at all.

In the case of the Ferguson/Michael Brown stuff I am glad that Twitter exists as an unfiltered platform for those directly involved with the situation. I can know pretty much everything about what is happening in Ferguson right now without going anywhere near a traditional news web site. I feel this is a very important and valuable thing that I would like to be able to leverage.

On the other side, you have all of the Zoe Quinn stuff that is going on. I am not even fully aware of that story and couldn't tell you which parts of it are true and which are false or exaggerated. It is causing people on all sides of the issue, even those who I agree with, to come across as vitriolic. I've tried really hard to ignore stuff in my feed related to this but it usually causes me to just close the browser and do something else altogether to get my mind off of it.

I don't have a problem not checking in for a good while, but it's become an integral news source for me. The world is kinda crazy right now, and while it's sad that internet assholes are ruining peoples lives, it doesn't really register for me as being super important in the grand scheme. Basically I don't give much thought to Internet drama.

Social media is for vaporwave, Simpsons quotes and wrestling gifs. All other social media scenes are dead.

There isn't any other outlet for me to spout my bullshit so not really

@themanwithnoplan said:

This man has the right idea. You don't need Twitter for anything. At all. Anyone who tries to convince you otherwise is laying heaps of bullshit on you.

Twitter has the unfortunate habit of making me like Alex less. I just hate the fact that I can't completely block the twitter feeds from this site so I don't have to see the latest e-drama that all of these grown ups are enamored with.

Twitter brings out the inner gossipy teenager in everyone and it bums me out that I can't completely excise it from my web browsing.

@oldirtybearon: Creating a custom adblock filter didn't work?

Maybe I'm just weird but I can hardly fathom getting depressed or angry from reading a few tweets.

No, I love Twitter. It's the only way I can stay in contact with Darji, @Darji. Surprising to no one, he's been tweeting a lot about Zoe.

I definitely feel like having a break at times, but more and more recently Twitter is how I hear about certain goings on. Depending on how heavy handed other sources are being with the flow of information.

I might be showing my age, but I never understood Twitter to begin with. I prefer to consume others' opinions that are verbose and backed-up with actual facts. I think a great deal of Internet drama could be avoided if people would stop trying to cram their life views into 'witty', 140 character-or-less text messages.

I follow porn stars and pro athletes, my twitter feed is alright.

I recently started the long process of deleting my fb. I was having a rather similar experience with it since the bulk of people I know (and even that annoying trending bar) seemed to be posting nothing but negative and depressing comments. I have some pretty rough issues with depression so the constant splurge of negative news articles and posts and tweets was really starting to bring me down. I tried taking a break from fb and twitter for a while an honestly things got better for me. Granted my experience most likely isn't the norm but if you feel like you need a break maybe taking one for a few days isn't so bad to start with? At least that way you don't make any long term commitments to completely 'unplugging' yourself in case you want to go back. If you don't wanna go back then you can always go back and delete them later. Hope it all works out for you! =D

Edit: I should note that I personally haven't had a problem with tweets from the GB dudes. Realized my earlier comment made it seem like I had which isn't the case. My issues stems MOSTLY from my family/friends.

People have been shitty to each other for thousands of years, being a crappy garbage person wasn't invented by social media so blaming Twitter of Facebook for that is short sighted. I go to Twitter for the weirdness, I go to see people discussing some live event, I go to feel like I'm part of a larger social circle. I do encounter the drama, but I find it hard to care and be that invested in some bullshit conflicts people have there.

I've been a member of Giant Bomb since the very first day, I've followed the people who are part of it since even longer before. Despite that, I paid absolutely zero time out of my life when the above mentioned "scandals" were going on. I just don't put people in pedestals I guess, people are fucking human and whenever they may make a mistake we shouldn't treat it as a personal attack or something delusional like that. It boggles my mind how invested people get with the personal lives of video-game-famous people. "Oh no, so and so supports GMO, fuck that guy." Who the fuck cares, seriously. Who the fuck would I think I be pretending I have some say over a stranger in a video game website. The stupidity of the comments is staggering.

I better stop, I never go on like this, I try to keep it light and weird but the amount of entitlement of what people do or say in the social networks is utterly insane. Where's David Jaffe when you need him.

Twitter is as good or as bad as you let it be.

Not really. However, I do unfollow people who are having tendencies to tweet stuff I don't want to see. A guy I knew from high school started doing nothing but retweet mass amounts of Ferguson stuff. Which was interesting at first until it got old because it drifted more and more towards random anarchist statements. So I unfollowed him. I may follow him again later, but for now I don't care to filter through all of his stuff. For the most part you can control what you see, so take advantage of that.

I don't think I could get rid of twitter completely. It's too useful to see little tidbits of stuff about whats going on in the Starcraft scene, and to keep in touch with friends.

Social networks are for douche bags.

If you're not a douche bag, you're probably a commercial entity promoting yourself. So you're still a douche bag.

I don't use twitter, facebook, etc. I use LinkedIn for professional purposes and that's it. Anyone important to me in my life in any way can call me, text me, email me, IM me, or visit me. I don't need to tell everyone what I ate today or see their gross sonograms.

I was temporarily interested in Twitter as a way to follow the most interesting of people, but the only person I have come across that I care about following and does not *also* post a lot of crap like their facebook photos or retweeting every dumb thing or sending along political crap or random bullshit is John Carmack. I really like that guy, but he alone is not worth using twitter for. It is not worth scrolling through or muting or deleting 950 pieces of bullshit just to consume the rare 50 pieces of signal. It just isn't.

(Yes, my comment was a sweeping generalization and not absolutely everyone on them is a douche bag, but kinda).

I've tried to get into Twitter a couple of times now. I go in there, follow a bunch of people that I think would be interesting aaaand then very rarely actually read what they have to say. It just always feel like finding the good stuff on Twitter, even from people I care about, is like finding a needle in a haystack. Most of what gets posted I just don't care about.

i don't really like "social media". Twitter's the only one i tolerate but i generally stay off it unless there's an event going on that i'd like real time reporting from. outside of that, @ replies are tied to my phone so i get what i need there and only what i need there...keep that shit to a minimum.

I flushed most of my follows on Twitter a while ago. Not because of the negativity but because everyone seems to think they need to put on a comedic persona. Humor makes the world a better place, but I don't want to scroll through fifty half-assed attempts to get one good joke and one actually useful line of text.

Now I only follow a handful of people who, more or less, use Twitter as a bulletin board. Announcements of livestreams, articles, podcasts, videos etc. That's all I need from Twitter.

Yeah, I'm basically the Grinch

Literally the only good thing to come from twitter is the occasional tweet from the Giantbomb staff. Everything else about it can burn in hell.

I thought I was the only one. I figured it was just because I'm old and was out of college for the first time before social networks were really even a thing. Everyone always tells me how social networks are so great for keeping in touch with people and letting people know what's going on in your life, but I have managed that just fine for as long as I've been alive with Twitter, MySpace, Facebook, or anything like that.

Funny anecdote: I was out with my girlfriend and some of her friends the other night and one of them took a picture of us kissing, and made a joke about it. I told her I didn't really care about the picture and wasn't embarrassed...she goes, "Wait until I post it on Facebook and tag you!" I said..."Go ahead, I'll never know about it anyway. Don't have a Facebook." The look in her eyes was like she just saw a UFO land in the middle of the street. She still hasn't wrapped her mind around the fact that I don't use Facebook, and even offered to set one up for me as if the reason I don't use it is because I don't know how to use a computer or something.

The only time I ever even visit Twitter is when I see a link to a tweet, or someone tells me about something and links it and I need to go read a conversation, usually related to Giant Bomb. Other than that, I'm just not interested.

I don't really go to twitter all that often.

Hell when people reply or favorite my stuff half the time I don't even know about it until years later.

Facebook and twitter are just places for me to randomly say something into the void. They hold no purpose or value for me. For that matter it baffles me why/how people spend so much time on them.

Maybe I'm just old, I don't know.

You can't unplug something that was never plugged...

What's ridiculous is that my user picture on Facebook (an account created years ago just to avoid impersonation due to what I do) is just the words "Email me at [address]. I don't use FB and will never see your messages", yet everyone still fucking sends me messages on Facebook. And not just people like distant relatives or some girl I hooked up with for a few months fifteen years ago. I get it from actual colleagues I've worked with over the years who are fellow developers and engineers.

I just don't get it. Don't these people know how to use email? That's easier to access than any website...

I'm not really sure what the ZQ scandal was about. Someone want to fill me in.

@dril, the only reason for anyone to use Twitter ever

I've been thinking about unplugging from the internet, period. At least from reading comments/community interactions. I seriously think it's killing me. Only site where I enjoy the community aspect is this very site, and that's thanks to the mods having a no bullshit policy and swiftly stamping out any sign of bullshit.

Closed my account almost two years ago. I just don't have a use for it.