Comments on: How I Blocked Myself From Twitter For 3 Days

By: Wayne

Wayne — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 12:27:14 +0000

Just say NO to all social media services. Big time wasters.

Unless of course you’re: looking for work, trying to market a product/service, keeping in touch with family & friends, planning events, stuck in traffic or long queue with a Blackberry, etc.

Ok, never-mind … bad idea.

By: Ruud

Ruud — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 14:25:05 +0000

I recognize what you’re describing, Jon. I try my best to stay true and real to myself; unplugging and distancing yourself form a community can help with that.

By: Jon Chui

Jon Chui — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 18:57:53 +0000

Thanks for the post Ruud! It’s nice to hear other people share similar thoughts of this information-overloaded culture. I love information, technology & “social media” (shudder at overusing the term though) and really feel twitter can be quite useful!

I tend to feel a sense of “peer pressure” reminiscent of my childhood days to “fit in”, “look cool”, literally “follow the right people”, and “say the right things”, and wonder if you deal with any of that?

I also get such a headache from Twitter sometimes just because it’s hard to keep up. My friend introduced me to “UnladenFollow.com” which helps to recommend people you should unfollow.

cheers!

By: Ruud

Ruud — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 13:49:29 +0000

I can’t put my finger on it (yet) but there’s a paralyzing quality to this kind of exposure. It can easily move past “inspire” into watching what other people did.

This was the 2nd weekend I stayed off and it’s been good. Planning to do explore the subject a bit more soon too.

By: Yura

Yura — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 11:32:55 +0000

Yeah, isn’t it related to information overload, fueled by our thirst for more information?

When I cut my RSS-reading and blog-reading time by only searching and reading what solves *only my current problems*, it helped me work more effectively a lot. But I switched to Twitter and Twitter-surfing, instead.

I guess it’s the new-era version of “Stop watching the TV all day and go play outside” thing. I really should practice it more.

By: Rob Chant

Rob Chant — Sat, 23 Jan 2010 01:13:12 +0000

I could go on, and on, and on about the whole issue of distraction and information addiction. But for now, suffice to say what Ghandi said, “There is more to life than increasing its speed.” Well done for taking a break, and seeing the benefit!

By: Anton

Anton — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 11:09:37 +0000

I so agree!

Everyone develops ‘just-one-minute’ routines — many of them unnecessary and often counter-productive.

But for those of us who live and work online, with no boss to look over our shoulders, it’s especially easy to follow multiple rabbit trails that end up eating time and energy.

I have more observations, but I promised myself to only use one minute for this.

Besides, I’ve got to brew some coffee!