What Happens When You Deactivate Your Twitter Account

Of all the social media outlets that have ever existed, Twitter was my absolute favorite. Facebook’s like that weird kid in school you say ‘hi’ to every now and then just so that they’ll let you copy their homework. Everyone knows that the only two reasons for still having a Facebook profile are 1) to remember everyone’s birthday and 2) so that potential future employers don’t think you’re a sociopath for not having a Facebook. And being the huge filter abuser that I am, Instagram and I are super close friends naturally, but Twitter truly was the great love of my life. You can learn so much more about a person through their Twitter pages than you can through any of the other sites. The celebrities they follow, the things they retweet, and most importantly, their ‘favorites’ are all indicators as to what type of person they are, and I was obsessed with this. However, I decided to end things with Twitter due to unforeseeable irreconcilable differences and the changes I’ve noticed since then have been life-altering.

You actually enjoy movies and TV series

Twitter is great because it allows you to connect with people who have similar interests as you through the usage of hashtags. I took full advantage of this by live tweeting worldwide breaking news and television shows with my closest dozens of thousands of friends daily. (As a holder of a season pass to #ShondaLand, #scandal and #HTGAWM were my favorites). A major downfall with this was that I would, without a doubt, have to re-watch every single episode the next day due to all the important little things I missed being too preoccupied thinking of a sassy Olivia Pope related tweet to share rather than actually watching the show. Now I understand why my teachers in high school were so obsessed with incessantly asking for my “complete undivided attention”. Finally being able to focus on something of interest is so much more rewarding and enjoyable.

You actually listen to songs

Hearing and listening are two completely different things. I hear the person sitting next to me on the train as they attempt to speak to me about their day/problems, but I’m not really listening to them as they attempt to speak to me about their day/problems. When you’re a chronic tweeter and you’re listening to music, you hear the words, but you’re just trying to find those ~perfect~ lyrics to tweet with the music note emoji so all your followers can think you’re hip and up to date with the Top 40. Without having to replay a certain part of a song just to make sure the lyrics are right as you’re typing your tweet, you actually get to make sense of what the artist is saying, what message they’re trying to relay, and how it’s relevant to your life so you can then listen to it on repeat for six days straight because you’ve recognized that it was basically written about you, for you.

You actually have fluid conversations

I used to be really guilty of pausing conversations just to say “omg, I HAVE to tweet that!” I would then proceed to open the app, tweet the hilarious statement/question the person said, and then allow them to continue speaking. Once I deactivated my account, I realized that conversations are considerably better and meaningful when they’re an authentic conversation, not just broken fragments that resemble one. I became more in touch with my actual friends in comparison to my virtual ones.

Now, I’m not saying that Twitter is this horrible thing that’s life-consuming and prevents you from truly experiencing life due to a lack of self-control, but rather that there’s more to life than being wrapped up in all the glitter of modern day technology. Watch a new comedy, download some new music, actually talk to someone, do something.