How quitting Twitter can make you more productive

By: Eli Amdur
Vantage Point
12/04/2022]

..... Here are some choices about the future of Twitter:
A: countless people who were Twitter users and are now ex-users may be the largest migration since they all became Twitter suers in the first place.
B: New subscribers are signing onto Twitter in droves, happy to get the check-mark for only ... what ... eight bucks a month? Who knew you could buy instant integrity for the price of one craft beer?
C: The November [2022] Twitter Massacre was an example of a leader making a crisp tough decision.
D: In a year, there probably won't be a Twitter.
..... Although nothing's certain yet, my guess is that the safest bet is (D). Let's unpack this , as I'm getting a high volume of emails and calls indicating that a lot of people would like to see one of those outcomes but have no real basis for a defensible answer. For a while, I was one. Guess which.
..... One month ago, my decision to quit using Twitter, and sent an announcement to 3.072 subscribers to my blog. I stated my unequivocal decision to quit, for three reasons: (1) Solidarity with 3,700 Twitter employees who were laid off in such a crass way. Since then, add another 1,200. Shame! (2) In 2010, the Library of Congress declared that Twitter was the first major cultural change in communication of the 21st century. Such promise! Now look at it. (3) On moral and ethical grounds, I boycott companies of whose behavior or position I disapprove.
..... I ended by casually asking" "Let me know if you agree."
..... One third of the recipients -1, 023 - opened it, and by two weeks later, 215 (21%) had chosen to reply. Of them 211 - 98%! - agreed. Most of them indicated that they would do the same - or already did. Let us now officially dub thi8s newly-evolved and growing species, "Twitter Quitters."
..... So, it's easy to see why I'm predicting (D), although initially expecting (A). I was getting ready to proclaim here-with, but my journalistic responsibility led me to eye-opening rears. The mass exodus I anticipated has not happened. However, something big has, and it's among what's called heavy Twitter users: 90% of all Tweets come from 10% of Twitter suers, and those heavy users have cut their output of tweets by 50%. so much for Twitter's situation. The rest, you can ponder.
..... But this got me thinking about what this could mean to each of us Twitter quitters who have liberated ourselves from our 280-character shackles.
..... American adults spend an average of 35 minutes on Twitter every day. Please note: that number is neither authoritative nor incontrovertible: it's only a relively safe estimate based on averaging reports form 12 credible sources, all of which are different, but range from 24 minutes to 45 minutes. I'm comfortable with 35, as the only thigh that hinges on it is this essay's supposition. another note: that's only Twitter. Add in all social media usage, and the numbers become totally nuts. In nay event, those 35 minutes - in small segments - add up to a hefty 208 hours per year: almost exactly four hours a week.
..... What would you do with an extra four hours a week? Suppose you were gifted with some of that time we all wishfully complain we don't have enough of? Time management experts, of course, remind us we don't find time, we make time. But truly, we now have an interesting - and very real - opportunity to fond some time: four hours a week, to be exact. That adds up to 208 hours a year, the equivalent of five weeks and a day of work or the equivalent of a beautifully long vacation.
..... That's Elon's gift to us Twitter Quitters.
..... At work, that's an awful lot of time to be either productive or creative. Away from work, that's an an awful lot of time to be ... well ... away from work.
..... So, just what would you do with that time you don't have now? Remember, nature abhors a vacuum, and something is going to fill up that time, for sure. That makes this an unusual moment when we can be either self-determining and self-referential or passive by letting other extraneous forces take over those 208 hours per year. We can either claim those 208 hours or give them back.
..... Next time you find yourself saying you wish you had more time, think about this moment and about the decision you made.
..... Or didn't make.

..... Eli Amdur has been providing individualized career and executive coaching, as well as corporate leadership advice since 1997.
..... For 15 years he taught graduate leadership courses at FDU. [NJ] He has been a regular writer for this [The Record] and other publications since 2003. You can reach him at eli.amdur@amdurcoaching,com or 201-357-5844.

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