I hate Twitter. It’s been that way since fall of 2016. But, like the alcoholic who’ll “quit tomorrow,” I never did anything about it.

I’d see people freaking out over Trump or Hilary, and then ruin my whole day getting mad about it. “Don’t those idiots know they’re wasting their time?” Meanwhile, I was the biggest idiot of them all, upsetting myself over other people’s grievances.

Then, around the time of America’s big Civil War statue controversy, I decided to scale back on Twitter. At this point, I made a two simple goals “no name / place dropping in 2018, and no Tweeting more than 100 times a month.”

We’re halfway through the year now, and I’ve kept good on this promise.

Last month I published 33 Tweets, and I think the number will keep diminishing until January 1st, 2019. Here are my observations during the break.

1. More Creative Action, Less Negativity

The majority of people use social media out of boredom.

“It’s Saturday night and there’s nothing to do, better browse Facebook.” That’s so common that I heard middle age adults say it.

Twitter and Instagram are the new television.

There’s “nothing to do” so people fritter their time away watching someone else live their life.

In reality, there’s a million better (and more interesting) ways to spend your time. This isn’t one of those stupid “always give 110%” clichés either, you waste your time in plenty or creative and fun manners.

In the evenings I’ll usually play cards (sites like PokerStars and Party Poker have free tables), go for walks, hit my heavy bag, and (more recently) started a Dungeons & Dragons group.

Also, I read a lot more books now. About an extra title a month. Mostly novels.

People gripe that you can’t learn from fiction, but I disagree. Reading Crime And Punishment partially influenced my Twitter hiatus in the first place, by presenting the idea that humans have an uncontrollable desire to confess their sins.

Case in point?

My long-term stalker / death threat sender Benjamin Riley Schmitt Tweeted his way onto a FBI watch list. The stress of which aged him 10 years in three months.

I think it’s rational to ask “Is five minutes of ‘ranting’ worth a lifetime of self-inflicted misery?”

The same goes for the numerous celebrities and public figures who can’t resist the urge to jump on some “hot button issue” and embarrass themselves.

I once read a quote which goes: “The more you know about someone, the more power you have over them.” There’s certainly some merit to that.

Reading or spending time with friends doesn’t have the visceral thrill of “trolling,” but you aren’t knocking on your own tomb either. If you want action, join a boxing gym or cardroom.

You get that same “rush,” while exercising your brain and developing constructive skills.

2. More Articles (And Profits)

Most Tweets (or social media posts in general) have a very short lifespan.

From personal experience, I’d say most content dies out within 24 hours. If you write something that really gains traction, you might a whole three days of engagement.

Long-form articles are different.

I have posts from 2015 that still generate daily income. And I have Tweets from last Thursday that are completely forgotten.

Years ago, when I built my first successful niche site, I ended up generating $1,600 a month in profit. And not once did I do any “Brand Building” through Twitter or Instagram. And even of I had, it probably wouldn’t do much.

(Apologies For The Potato Quality, This Image Is From An Old WhatsApp Conversation)

Last year, I actually worked on building a big social media profile and grew it to ~ 10k followers (the actual number is slightly lower). The revenue from that pales in comparison to what I make writing one or two SEO friendly articles a day.

I’m not alone in this observation either.

A friend running his 25k follower Twitter account mentioned his conversion rate was under 1%. While another friend (who got himself banned from all social media) generates about 100k unique pageviews per month, mostly from SEO (he also has a fairly high conversion rate).

Even some of the longer form social media platforms (like Medium) outlast Twitter or Instagram.

My Medium account averages a couple hundred pageviews per month, and I rarely post there. Likewise, several Tweets converted to posts went from generating “imaginary Internet points” to making sales.

Lastly, social media lets you get an idea out of system immediately.

I can’t tell you how many articles or ideas I’ve scuttled simply because I’d posted the condensed version straight to Twitter.

By taking a break, you give yourself time sit down and further articulate an idea or concept. And once you get the ball rolling, it’s easy to knock out a complete post or article.

Swapped the Twitter App with Google Keep. Whenever you’re at the grocery store or waiting in line, pen a few sentences or jot down an idea. Oftentimes you’ll end up writing a whole article or sales letter this way.

This is the difference between getting attention for an hour and setting up a long-term stream of passive income.

3. Better Quality Information

Last fall I was speaking with some engineers in Shanghai. For some reason we got on the topic of video games, and they started telling me all about their favorite Steam title: “Player Unknown Battlegrounds.”

If you’re unfamiliar with this game, it’s pretty simple.

You parachute onto an island, then shoot everyone you see. There’s no story, no characterization, and no real context. As far as games go, this is as basic as it gets.

And that’s why it’s popular.

Anyone can understand it. There’s no cultural barrier (a game like Doom is about as unrelatable to the Asian market as a game about jiangshibis is to Westerners). And without a story or complex mechanics, there’s virtually no entry requirement for getting started. It’s not a flight simulator where you have to understand a million controls, or an RPG which rewards players for reading obscure clues or acquiring massive amounts of information. You parachute onto an island and shoot things.

That’s it.

In contrast, many older games (especially on the PC) had insane levels of depth. In Frontier: Elite II, you could traverse the entire solar system (in real-time) and space travel obeyed the actual laws of physics. This means that you needed some understanding of how space flight works on order to play the game.

A big barrier of entry, but fun once you get the hang of things.

So what’s this have to do with social media?

Everything.

Twitter let’s you get bite sized information all day long. The only problem is that it lacks depth. Most of this content is obvious advice and as broad as possible. Much of this “wisdom” is little more than a platitude. It sounds nice, but there’s no substance.

Work hard, wake up early, “demand excellence.”

There’s a huge difference between reading “Eat steaks, salads, and do squats” on Twitter versus taking the time to study nutrition or fitness.

The same goes for other ventures like sales or investing. It’s fun to read “Warren Buffett is old and fat so he doesn’t understand BitCoin” or “Sales is about over promising and over delivering,” but you’re ultimately getting nothing of substance.

(You Can Read A Million “Insights” Like This And Learn Nothing)

[Side Note: The actual criticism of BitCoin, as explained by Peter Lynch, is that non-tangible technology is too competitive. Someone will always come up with a slight improvement that makes the previous item obsolete. Likewise, the best BitCoin advice I’ve received is “Invest as much as you’re comfortable losing and trade on volatility.”]

Additionally, the quality of sources has really taken a nosedive.

Without doxxing anyone, I’ve been writing here since 2012 and remember when all major content was long-form articles. And many of those blog posts (even the ones on “game” or fitness) were published out of corner offices by conventionally successful men.

Logging onto Twitter now, I see @TheAlphaHighSchooler telling you to “stop being a f*ggot and go lift some weights.”

Content like this makes me roll my eyes.

You’re better off reading a book by someone who’s been around the block than banking all your advice off someone who’s greatest accomplishment is… Tweeting.

Closing Thoughts

I don’t think social media is “destroying civilization” or “making us dumber.” But I do think it’s a time waster dressed up as a utility.

“Twitter is for smart people” is like saying “Netflix original programming is for smart people.” Sure, it’s better some alternatives, but you’re still not doing anything productive or meaningful.

If you want to catch up with people, write to a relative (most of your loved ones will die long before you do, so don’t take them for granted) or call up an old friend.

Same goes for business stuff or anything else, there’s usually something more important or efficient than posting pictures online.

All of the do-nothings who read motivational business Tweets would be better off getting a part-time job and investing that money into stocks, because they’re getting tangible results that way. Seriously, there are a lot of guys who spend five hours a night watching Gary Vee or Brandon Mace. They could use that time to go deliver pizzas, and then put that money into an index fund.

At least that way they’re getting something for their time.

Taking a Twitter break opened my eyes to how meaningless 99% of social media is. There’s no Earth shattering penalty for not sharing something. And stepping back makes you realize how fleeting most of the content is.

It’s a refreshing experience and something I wish I’d done earlier.