How I learned to love Twitter again (and what The Social Dilemma gets wrong)

Watching Tristan Harris and others in the Social Dilemma documentary, I found myself conflicted. While I totally agree that social media is a hidden menace, stealing our time and attention while selling our data to the highest bidder, I couldn’t helped but think it was hopelessly overwrought.

I know I’m not alone in being a little creeped out that when I talk about a product with someone, a day later an ad for it shows up in my Facebook or Instagram feed. On the other hand, I haven’t been led down the conspiracy theory path either, or been radicalized. I can watch a movie or read a book without checking my phone constantly (or at all). And it hasn’t led me to a life of crime and being arrested. (All of this was implied by the Social Dilemma.)

Also, is it a bad thing that we’re shown ads that are relevant?

But probably my biggest beef with social media runs counter to the narrative in The Social Dilemma — it’s not that social media is effective, it’s that it isn’t. It’s not that I’ve been feeling compelled to spend more time on social media; it’s that I have been less compelled to do so.

I will explain.

Sick of it

There was a time I used Facebook as the ultimate time killer. I could easily spend an hour on the platform, killing slow periods at work effortlessly.

Twitter was largely the same. Since it was chronological (as Facebook once was) a scroll would reveal random insights from folks I follow. I never quite knew who would pop up, and posting myself meant anyone following me might randomly see it. I had a couple of noteworthy people following me — including an Olympic speedskater and Nolan Bushnell of Atari fame. One retweet from them could be very profitable!

Facebook was the first to change the chronological timeline in favor of an algorithm generated feed. Many I know including myself complained, but Papa FB knew better, and while they toyed with allowing a chronological timeline, it never quite worked right and Facebook was never the same.

Other apps did the same, but Twitter was the lone holdout. But they changed too, eventually. Not only that, but they started showing you posts others liked. I found this especially irritating, particularly when I purposefully unfollowed someone because I got sick of them. It’s like you can’t get away from them. And so the uselessness begins. (BTW, you can go back to the chronological timeline on the iOS app by tapping on the stars icon in the upper right corner. You’re welcome.)

Worse: It CONSTANTLY refreshes. I don’t know how many times I read a tweet, click a link, come back to share or comment or like, and it disappears. Is this supposed to help engagement? All these things serve only to frustrate users.

That Harris says YouTube has especially effective algorithms surprised me; it seems the worst of the lot. I’ve always said YouTube is like your grandmother — you tell her you kind of like something once and in her mind it is now your favorite thing ever. YouTube’s suggestions are like this, and I rarely scroll its feed. Watching 10 seconds of a Ben Shapiro video doesn’t mean I like Ben Shapiro and want to see all the videos he’s ever made or all videos made about him.

As a result of all this, for a long time I spent almost no time on these platforms. Instagram seemed the best of the lot, for what I need it for.

Trying to reason with social media season

I dug up an old app called Twitterific recently. Maybe this would solve a particular problem I have: I have a small list of people I would like to read often. But it takes a long time to get to my list, every time I want to see it.

Twitteriffic solves this problem well. Once pulled up, my smart people list (yes, I’m never allowed to name things) stays up, and exactly where I left off. I can refresh when I want, or leave it. If I’m halfway through a thread, I can continue it four hours later without it disappearing into the ether.

This isn’t to pump up this other app, it’s to point out that an outside app appears to know how users want to use Twitter more than Twitter itself does.

On YouTube, I use the native app, but almost exclusively rely on my subscription feed. And then, I mostly check for new videos from creators I happen to be in the mood for. I never use the main feed, or the trending feed. (I’ve often gone through the whole trending feed without finding a single thing I am interested in — am I just weird?)

And Facebook has essentially become a search engine for me. I use messenger a lot. I check my notifications (most of which are now worthless). I check on new businesses who often have Facebook pages before they have their business built out. But it’s a rare day — maybe once per week — that I scroll through the feed. Why? Because I am often shown the same few posts over and over again. When you are friends with hundreds of people, it’s hard to fathom how you could keep seeing the same things over and over.

The larger question this begs: Why do I have to go to so much trouble to use these services that are so apparently effective at hooking me? Or even worse, with Facebook, I barely use at all. Why are outside apps more effective and getting me to enjoy their platforms, than the ones produced by the platforms themselves?

So, Social Dilemma, I get you, but I also disagree. I think social media is actually really bad at what it is trying to do. I spent way more time on Facebook before all their tricks to try to get me to use the platform more; and I need to use a special app just to make Twitter still palatable.

But it’s entirely possible that I am just weird.

B.C. Kowalski is the founder of the Keep it Wausome podcast, the website www.frugalwheels.com, and The Wausonian newsletter.