Little bites: the unbearable lightness of leaving Twitter

Zero following. Today I unfollowed every account I had followed on Twitter, where I'd lived online since 2007. What a weird memory trip.

I'm parking my account for the time being, so I can maybe protect the username, in case the hellsite ever recovers, which seems unlikely at this point.

I used, and can heartily recommend, a Chrome extension called Twitter Mass Unfollow. It unfollows the accounts you've followed in little bites, little batches, between 30-40 at a time, with pauses in-between, and then you just click it to restart it, easy-peasy. The little bites and the pauses help keep the mass-unfollowing activity from attracting Twitter's attention.

It was a bit emotional seeing Twitter handles fly past with whom I've had so many adventures over the past 16 years. If it weren't for my connection to The Young Punx on Twitter, Phoole & the Gang never would have happened. So many Phooligans never would have joined the Phooliverse without those friendships.

I know there are so many Phooligans who just live on Twitter and won't migrate to other platforms; I'm sad to leave them behind. If you are one of them, I'm sad to leave you behind. We've had really good times together there, for so many years. But ethically, I just can't be there. I'm queer, I have Jewish heritage, I'm married to a trans woman whom I love and will defend at any cost. I can't be on a platform that is now a Nazi, anti-LGBTQ+, and TERF megaphone.

I know no privately-owned platform is ethically sound.

I know I'm on other platforms that have ripped society apart in other exciting ways.

I know the platform I keep my website on is deeply ethically flawed.

I'm working on it. Little bites.