I Quit Twitter and I Don't Regret it!

 Courtesy of musically.com

 I already spend too much time on social media (mostly on Facebook and sometimes on Instagram) that I needed to get rid of one kind of outlet that was a complete time waster. After thinking, praying, and debating about it, I finally decided to get rid of Twitter. Here are some of my reasons.

1. Out of all the social media platforms that I have used (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Linked In), Twitter seemed to be the most narcissistic. People don't really care about others on there. They are just trying to get as many "likes" and "retweets" as possible. Of course, that's not saying people don't want to get "likes" and comments on Facebook, but you usually do anyway since your family and friends are the ones to comment. On Twitter, most people are complete strangers, so you rely on complete strangers for affirmation.

2. Sometimes you will tweet something that you think people will like and many times you will get absolutely no retweets or "likes." If you're not extremely popular or slightly famous on Twitter, you will have this problem often.

3. If you are following someone, you see accounts that they follow since Twitter suggests them to you. But if those accounts don't appeal to you, you still see them because the person tweeted something from it or liked it. It's extremely annoying.

4. You see almost too much of what's wrong with the world on Twitter in REAL TIME. You can easily become negative and hate the world when you see all of the junk happening minute-by-minute and this is the main reason I jumped off Twitter.

Don't get me wrong. Twitter is very addictive and I see a lot of things I like about it (sports, weather, and up-to-date news is great to follow on Twitter), but for me personally, I am too busy and I don't want to get caught up in the negative aspects of Twitter. Facebook takes up too much of my time already and I want to use the rest of my free time on more useful things. 

So why don't I get rid of Facebook? As much as Facebook is a time waster (and it really can be sometimes), I just recently found two advantages that Facebook has more than any other social media outlet. 

1. Last week, I visited my high school alma mater to get my vaccination records and I ran into my old art teacher (who I was already keeping in touch with on Facebook). We hugged and although she was helping students and in a bit of a hurry, I posted on her timeline when I got home. She responded and asked why I stopped by and apologized that she didn't have more time to talk to me. And to add to this, my Bible teacher from the same high school (who I have also kept in contact with) commented in the thread that it must have been very special for us to see each other. That's one huge benefit of Facebook.

2. I recently got a message from an old friend who I went to church with in Seoul. She said she is coming out to L.A. in July and is trying to get together with some people and have a church reunion with friends living in L.A. that went to the same church as her in Seoul. She remarked that the pastor who married my wife and I is going to be there at the reunion as well. She told one of my close friends on Facebook as well and I think there will be a total of 10-11 people at the reunion. This is the power of Facebook. 

So there you go. Facebook has a lot of disadvantages, but these two reasons are pretty much why I keep Facebook. Twitter, on the other hand, doesn't have a whole lot of advantages except being informed early on the news. But since I can get my news elsewhere without being triggered, I don't really need Twitter.

Scott Worden (The L.A./Seoul Guy)

Instagram: l.a.seoulguy