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How do you use X (mindfully)?
Hey makers,
I have enjoyed using WIP recently, and I have (re)discovered it at a perfect time when I decided to take a break from X. I think it's an amazing community of people who do not have the urge to do everything for the algorithm and hence post just whatever is on their mind. Plus, it's not so big, so it doesn't feel overwhelming.
I have always had a love/hate relationship with social media and recently decided to take a break from all of them. While I don't care about Instagram and don't feel any urge to return, I am still missing X (FOMO?).
How do you use X mindfully so it won't suck you in marketing and recycling posts, political scandals, and agenda, and just don't waste too much time on it?
Are there any people who completely stopped using it? Or found a healthy relationship?
I have enjoyed using WIP recently, and I have (re)discovered it at a perfect time when I decided to take a break from X. I think it's an amazing community of people who do not have the urge to do everything for the algorithm and hence post just whatever is on their mind. Plus, it's not so big, so it doesn't feel overwhelming.
I have always had a love/hate relationship with social media and recently decided to take a break from all of them. While I don't care about Instagram and don't feel any urge to return, I am still missing X (FOMO?).
How do you use X mindfully so it won't suck you in marketing and recycling posts, political scandals, and agenda, and just don't waste too much time on it?
Are there any people who completely stopped using it? Or found a healthy relationship?
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My 3 things:
1. Reading time
- Create a list, add people you like and can learn from
2. Writing time
- Use 3rd party app to draft your post (like Typefully or Notion), so you can just focus on writing
3. Scrolling time
- Time-blocking your time on social media, e.g. doomscrolling for 25 mins, etc
Thank you!
Just a disclaimer, X can be addicting and I was addicted to it, so this is my way to limit it lol.
You need to filter your feed, block those hardsales, political posts, trolls, etc. It's not good for your mental state, especially when you're checking on your mobile. I only check on "Home" on my laptop, I use Chrome extension filters (like refinedtweets.com) to block certain things that I don't like.
During "work" days, I timeblock my schedule. Scrolling is there for 25 mins (morning, afternoon), longer in the evening when I'm free.
Thanks for sharing! Great extension (refinedtweets.com) btw, I haven't seen it yet, installing.
the creator is here @faahim01
X defs sucks you in for sure.
I try to:
Timebox my screentime there, ~1h per day.
Mute/block trolls, haters and toxic folks liberally.
Use the Following feed or a list and go straight to the profile pages of folks I want to follow closely.
Avoid replying to drama, rage bait, etc, even from accounts i follow
Tweet build in public stuff, thoughts, thoughtful posts, jokes.
Engage mostly within my circle. When tweet goes viral and extends outside circle, i'm selective with those replies I engage with.
Great tips! Thanks.
Yeah, time-blocking seems like a good way to do this. I might need to block it in Chrome by default and only allow myself a certain amount per day in a time block.
I mute a lot of words and sentences.
I’m interested in American politics, climate change, etc. But I read that on my own terms, so I’ve muted all related words.
I also mute sentences like “the European mind”, posts like that are just a waste of brain cycles.
My feed is fairly clean. If I want to dip my toes in today’s mayhem I look at the trending page.
Yeah, I remember I used blocking only once (for COVID), and it worked great. I think I need to start using this feature more often.
Same. I even mute words I'm interested in because I realize the most trending tweets are just stupid or engagement bait.
Hi!
I tried twice to use Twitter back in the day (and met some lovely people over 10 years ago on the first try that I met in real life from there) and later because there were lots of discussions happening there which were interesting for my work (energyTwitter, climateTwitter etc). But ... I'm also a woman, who believes and works in equity and human rights and maybe doing something about not killing the environment and things so it's a pretty hostile place for that 😅
I heavily avoided it for anything tech and business as it's largely dominated by marketing and a certain gender/class/political view of person with threads to create noise, and influence and make ever more money. I just stopped reading it one day and never missed it (never had the mobile app so that helped too). It's a pleasure to have absolutely zero idea what is going on over there and I don't feel like I miss anything at all.
I think when you're in a position of love / hate but you do feel some urge to return it's probably best to consider the why. I know for previous businesses we "had to do" social media and we would choose one channel where our audience really spent a lot of time, and do it as well and human and engaging as humanly possible and just interact only with that. But I've also since changed my work and projects significantly to not have to be on any social media at all which is a dream for me and is possible depending on the business.
So, do you absolutely need to be on there for work / marketing / because that's where your audience is? Or is the urge to return because you're missing a certain community there that you can't find elsewhere (in which case the tips from others are great to keeping your time clean and useful on there)? Or is it the information you would get on certain topics or spirited discussions on a subject (you might find these elsewhere too, on longer substack commentaries or in private podcasts or newsletters)?
I think if you feel good using it, don't feel like it's a time suck and meet genuinely awesome humans (of a diverse range) and / or are more well-informed on the things you want to be and / or have a good way to reach your audience that feels genuine, then it can be good. Otherwise - there are hundreds of other alternative options :)
For me, it's mainly about the community and cool people I can learn from. But you're right. I can definitely learn it from somewhere else.
If it's a pleasure to not be there - don't go back! Simple pleasures are underrated :)
I absolutely understand re community. There are some fantastic newsletters and substack comment sections (and I suppose medium for business more) communities where incredible humans are that really seem thoughtful and because it's not a feed or marketing, its drama-less and more focused on genuine conversation and interest and it feels less energy-suck; you consciously spend time when you have it / want to, to go there.
Easy: by coming there for posting only.
It makes sense, but I am not sure how I feel about this approach.
So basically, if I don't like the platform and how social media algorithms influence us, creating for those platforms is kinda hypocritical
Isn't social media the same as having a personal blog/space/etc and therefore sharing your stuff is not hypocritical? People who don't like you won't be subscribed anyway.
Yeah, good point and perspective.
I really like the way you can mute words. I mute vigorously. If I don't like a topic: mute and never think about it again. Every trend or even words like 'war', 'trump', 'covid', 'football' etc get muted. Really makes my timeline better.
Also: instant blocking of accounts with annoying ads or ppl who post stupid things. There's an infinite amount of nice things to discover. Omit stupidity and annoying accounts.
X is my favorite social network.
I certainly need to use muting more often.
I see Twitter as a place to meet cool people irl and have stopped caring for engagement/reach at least for the time being. I made my irl circles from it and i am thankful, but right now i am focusing on building.
I realized you grow on Twitter by achieving stuff outside of twitter, so I don't spend time there to grow my profile. Eventually when everything else is sorted out, I might go back to caring for growing my acc again.
Right now I post unfiltered stuff (shit posting/stuff that come out of my head while building my business) and stuff that I create that my (tech) audience would probably care about (such as libraries, releases, products etc).
It has worked great so far.
Maybe a small thing, but I only allow myself some time on X when I build something. So if I built a feature or fixed some bug I post that on X and then I have a few minutes to reply or engage with posts etc. So no building means no X which forces me to ship more.