I have expressed this online before, but I think people who shit on Tumblr or BlueSky while having Twitter accounts are absurd. You have a Twitter account. You have no excuse to have a Twitter account.
That being said, I joined Twitter with a private account in March of last year and am still on there.
I cannot wean myself from it. I don't have the app - I use Firefox on my phone to access it - so there's no way to delete it in order to make it less accessible. I thought Blogger and Tumblr would make for good alternatives, but I don't have Blogger on my phone, and frankly, not much goes on on Tumblr. (I know for a fact it is not dead, though. Please get on Tumblr.)
My impulse to be on Twitter is the same as my impulse to be on Spotify, which I only got so I could track my listening stats with last.fm. I want to be in the know. I want to be able to interact with my friends, and - well - I want attention. I am no less performative than anyone else. I got an Instagram recently and am trying to balance sharing K-pop songs with Baroque arias so people know I'm multifaceted like that.
I should be smarter than all this. Anyone else feel like they should be smarter than this? Aren't we supposed to be better than those people who must constantly announce themselves by being funny, or witty, or morally superior? Shouldn't we be able to strong-arm ourselves into keeping from getting on our phones when we are uncomfortable in real life?
I do feel at times when I'm at an oppressively uncomfortable social gathering or event that the world must shrink down to just me and Twitter. These are times when I think I'm allowed to cope by watching my favorite K-pop boys dance in vertical concert videos. But, predictably, I remain miserable, hunched over with eyes straining to read.
Whatever. These kinds of posts are why I'm on Blogger and not Substack.