Remember I stopped using Facebook a few years ago (and got back not too long ago)? Well, I quit Twitter too (and don’t plan on ever returning). Although it had grown to be my main news source for the past five years I’d used it – especially when it came to music hero deaths – recent events pushed my personal irritation buttons sufficiently for me to stop using it altogether.

What’s this stuff with Elon Musk buying Twitter for the absurd amount of 44 billion? How about Trump being allowed back on? And then Musk started firing so many of the folks at Twitter by email, in specific the people who were responsible for content moderation? Musk deserves global recognition for the advancements involving Tesla and, probably, Space-X, but his megalomaniacal approach to the Twitter takeover pushed a whole bunch of my allergy buttons. I had already been underwhelmed by the Twitter algorithms (got the oddest ‘sponsored Tweets’ on my feed), so when people on my feed started Tweeting about leaving Twitter, I wanted to be part of this movement and decided to leave too. I removed the mobile apps, downloaded my data, and cancelled my account right aftwards. It is now nearly one month later and I only miss Twitter on Saturdays, when a Dutch comedian (Youp van ‘t Hek) always posts a razor-sharp column.

From now on I’ll be listening to the twitter of actual birds outside my window.

Added 25 April 2023: I have in the mean time joined Mastodon – @cronos@mastodon.ie.