i haven’t been addicted to many things in life, besides coca cola, coffee, chocolate, reading, and twitter, and thus far, i’ve only had to cut myself off from one, coffee, and that was because it was physically making me sick. it’s easy to cut something out when the NOT having of it outweighs the having of it.
’tis not so with twitter, even though it was self imposed.
friends, i’m going through withdrawal.
i find myself thinking in 140 characters. copying links and then pasting them into bit.ly so they’re shareable. wondering what everyone’s up to. pondering what uproarious conversations i’m missing. flailing in the real world without the digital world for a compass. wondering who can hear me now?
however, i must remind myself this is what i wanted. not forever, OH HECK NO, but for now until i can establish better boundaries and stronger writing habits. i need to think first in people characters, not 140 characters.
and thus, my banishment continues.
BUT since it’s only been a week and change since i cut out my heart closed twitter and my bad habits are slow to diminish, i had to find a new way to procrastinate. what did i do? i cleared out my blog’s spam filter. i found that someone or something hawking cheap laptop batteries had made it their mission to flood my blog with comments about the band mumford and sons. i get it. my last name is mumford. i’ve written about the band. but why write multiple unrelated comments about the weather and the band on a post where i’m talking about going dark/offline for awhile? and what does that have to do with cheap laptop batteries?
seeing all those spam entries one after the other got me thinking because with this departure from twitter, i find myself without a platform to talk, *cough* she says while writing a public blog post *cough*. what i mean is that with twitter, it’s instant gratification. you pop on, type up a quick thought and BOOM, instant audience. BUT THEN i realized, all those times where i’m sharing a link or trying to be funny or weighing in on writing or blabbing about books and hoping someone will join in on the conversation, it’s THEN that I’M NO BETTER THAN A SPAM BOT. well, okay, that’s a little drastic. i am better than that, but you know, twitter encourages and even exacerbates this behavior because unless it’s an @ reply, all of what we write is offered up for the whole internet to read. of course i don’t write each tweet 25x or incorporate offensive swear words or talk about cheap laptop batteries until someone responds, but i guess what i’m saying is i understand the spam.
perhaps, though, it’s a good thing i’m taking a break because i don’t like having this as my reflection:
Abigail Mumford 
Aww, you have never come across as spam to me! And I miss you on Twitter. :)
Totally understand the need to take a break from it, though. It becomes consuming if we let it.
i miss all your funny comments. A LOT. now i have to rely on coworkers or myself for running commentary on life and we’re not all as funny as you.
i can’t wait until i figure out this balance between good writing time and taking a break writing time…cause i miss twitter muchly.
What is wrong with you, of course you are not spam! I miss you on Twitter too :((
Sure, we all way things on Twitter that nobody else cares about, which I guess is what defines Spam too, but people who follow you on Twitter chose to follow you. They wanted to hear what you had to say. Michelle Wolfson did this awesome rant a while back, about tweeting about diapers – that it’s all part of the package and none of us are one-dimensional :) I loved it.
Anyway, my point is, I get why you’re trying to distance yourself from Twitter and focus on more productive things, but you’re not spam! Just sayin’ :)
ok, this post wasn’t written seriously. it was more tongue in cheek. i guess i need to work on my tone. haha.
but thanks for saying you miss me cause i miss you and it like all get out.
nah, it was me. of course you weren’t being serious, and i knew that, somewhere deep down… from now on i will delay commenting until i’ve had more caffeine :)
no way, man. you sans caffeine is as silly as me hopped up on it. :)
ha! I’ve had instances myself where I was like, man I’m tweeting an awful lot…and it’s all about nothing. and i wonder if some tweeps think im letting my spam flag fly high.
good news: i dont think you come across as Sir Spams Alot. hope your exile ends soon. we miss you on the twitter
sir spams alot. that basically begs for a rap to be written.
except, umm, i think that falls under the definition of non-productive writing….hmm, maybe i’ll use that as a writing exercise if other words are blocked. ha.
I just love to hear the “focusing on writing” bit!
thanks! establishing good writerly habits is hard and some sacrifices are being made, but it’s for the best and hey, i feel like a grown up now!
I find days where I wish I had more time to check in on the twitter. With work, school, home life, school, work and yes housework, I am sometimes so slammed that finding just a few minutes a day to read is a challenge.
But if I were on twitter right now I just know. I mean I KNOW, I would be missing you.
You are the sweetest (and busiest) thing!
You said chocolate. :)
Miss you!
ha ha. best comment. CHOCOLATE.
miss you too!