The current top trending topic on Twitter is "#whentwitterwasdown" and it seems like a lot of people are currently tweeting about how they coped with not being able to tweet. I can sympathise because I remember going through the same thing myself. But I don't use Twitter anymore. This came about when I took two weeks off to spend with the kids during their school holidays. I decided to stay away from the computer for the two weeks because I felt bad about them continually asking me to get off the computer. I didn't manage to last two weeks but I did make it through the first week and that was an achievement for me. I have begun to suspect that I have become a internet addict.
So I have been trying to minimise the amount of time that I spend on the computer and one major casualty of that is Twitter. I just found that, after my holidays, I just didn't have the desire to use it anymore. Occasionally I will log in and check that no one has sent me any messages but that's about it. I even manage to have a little chuckle to myself when I periodically get an email saying that some new tweeter (Twitterer?) is following me despite it being over a month since I tweeted anything at all and over two months since I tweeted regularly.
Unfortunately, I still have this addiction and my lack of tweeting has been replaced by spending a lot more time on Facebook and a couple of special interest forums that I am a contributor on. I know what I have to do to break this addiction. I have to delete my Facebook account. But it's just not as simple as that. I have a lot of friends on Facebook who I communicate with regularly and that is our only method of communication. The best thing about this method of communication which can't easily be replaced by email or a phone call is that it is not one to one but involves a whole group of mutual friends who comment on each others statuses and basically have lots of mini-conversations. This, I guess, is the power of an application like Facebook in that it facilitates this kind of communication which is similar to chatting in a pub but without requiring us to all be in the same geographical location – which we are not.
So, I won't be ditching Facebook anytime soon, much as I would like to. I will still try to minimise my time online though in some vague attempt to be a better father and spend more time with my kids. Another problem on that front is the television. If I'm not watching it they are and sometimes I really would like to turf it out the window.. but then how would I keep up with the cricket score?
About Darryl
