Quitting social media

People on Twitter getting super pissed about this and tweeting about it is the perfect summary of Twitter. Also, all the people convinced that Twitter has helped their career are at the same time naive to all the ways it has also hurt their career because they never knew about the missed opportunities.

 

Jeb Lund took a shot, which is funny, because he probably has no idea that he lost his gig at Esquire because of a few old dumb tweets about Esquire.

 

It's absolutely true. Twitter drives next to zero traffic. It serves no function in that regard.

 

I dunno; 95 percent of the information I have received — including the data that caused me to safely evacuate my house — about the fire ravaging my town came from repeatedly checking #thomasfire on Twitter.

That sort of use is undoubtedly the only good thing about the platform.

 

As someone who's trying to carve out a freelance career in a specific sport, I have to. Gotta.

But it's ruining my brain. 100%

I STILL don't understand Twitter. The interface is clunky to me. Others of you seem to navigate it perfectly. I've never gotten into a flamewar with anyone on Twitter because I can't seem to get the convo rolling-- who cares, right? Drives zero traffic-- yep totally. I see that from the analytics reports and the reports from the websites who employ me. And yet-- I know people who can send one Tweet and make $500-$1,000. One such person started to explain to me how it all works. Boggles the mind....

Facebook loves me, but I don't love it. It's aiight. I know how to use it. That one does drive traffic, apparently.

Instagram is my favorite. It's artistic, voyeuristic and pornographic. What's not to love ?

LinkedIn is the absolute fucking devil. It's skeevy as hell. It's the psychopath living in the basement of the house down the street.

Snapchat gives me a sad. I'm a sentimentalist and pack rat. That platform's whole purpose was to make shit go away. I know you can save stuff now, but meh. That one seems like the MySpace of this decade. Will fade soon, I think.

WhatsApp = My crack + oxycontin wrapped in a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup. How does WhatsApp make money ???

Muscial.ly - getting on it today because it's the one my dear daughter is on, and I need to monitor things. Plus we seem to laugh a lot when we mess around with that app.

God help me.

Now you understand why I haven't been here as much.

But that needs to change ! You people can give me my dopamine fix.

 

Where did you hear that? It depends on your audience. The preps writer at my shop swears by Twitter because he has thousands of high school students who follow him and will click on anything remotely interesting on his beat. Twitter is less important on my beat, but I certainly wouldn't say it doesn't help drive some traffic.

 

The percentage of traffic it drives is tiny for almost any outlet. There simply aren't enough users. From a pure metrics standpoint, you're talking like 5 percent of your audience. Sure, if your audience is small, then a lot of engagements from high school kids may seem like a lot. But if you want eyeballs on your stuff and you aren't Kim Kardashian, Twitter is a terrible thing to invest much time in or believe it will give you numbers you need to make advertisers care.

 

I wouldn't beat yourselves up too much over this. It's a failed experiment for journalists. I can understand why it seemed promising.

 

The only thing that bugs me at this point is people who clearly think it's a partial substitute for doing good work, and who think then that their behavior on Twitter isn't impacting the work they do. People who spend all day trying to be great at Twitter really need to tell you it's essential. It CAN be a way to get more exposure for you work if you're trying to get another job. But it's a lot of journalists jerking off for other journalists (or friends) and as someone was both good at Twitter and potentially harming my real job because of it, I had to exit or get fired from a gig 99 percent of Thirsty Twitter would love to have. And that's Wright's point. Don't you think Jordan Rodrigue wishes she'd never even downloaded the app? I can't imagine her paper hired her because of her clever quips, but her writing, but what's she now known for?

 

Wait, Luggy, are you saying it's your ass crack, or crack as in crystalized cocaine? If it's the former, are you a refrigerator repair person in real life?

 

Well, shit, that Dan Aykroyd clip didn't load. You know the one.

Or maybe it did.