Happy New Year! I wish you all a great 2025. This post is not yet a yearly review or planning post, although I plan to write one, but an announcement: to kick off the new year, I’ve decided to take at least a one-month break from X (Twitter), with the option to extend it further or even indefinitely. It’s been my tradition to reflect on my social media usage at the change of the year. I published my thoughts on this blog in December 2022 (for 2023) and January 2024, and here’s the 2025 version.

I want to explain why I’m taking a break from X but not other social media. I’ve always had mixed feelings about my relationship with social media. It’s a great way to stay in touch with people, learn about what’s happening in the world, and form new connections. At the same time, it can be a huge time sink that results in overstimulation and too much inspiration and exploration at times when I should focus on my current priorities.

Lately, going on X feels different. The algorithmic timeline promotes content from people, including, most prominently, those you don’t follow. It’s addictive and invites users to pull to refresh for new activities and stay hooked endlessly. Trending topics are ever present in the sidebar. That alone would be bad enough but manageable. However, the overall vibe of the general public discourse on X is outrage and negativity. I’m getting a full blast of German and US politics. Whatever is trending lacks nuance. It’s a constant stream of people lamenting the state of the world, with simplified explanations full of racism and misogyny and very few attempts at solutions except for super-populist ones. X has put the doom in doomscrolling.

The older I get, the less tolerance I seem to develop for straight negativity. Too often, I see people unhappy in their current life situations and focus their anger outward on whoever is a convenient scapegoat. I’m not naive; I don’t see the world with rose-colored glasses and pretend everything is great. However, I believe in the potential of individuals to self-improve and humanity to solve global problems, and the first step is an honest look at yourself and the state of the world and what works and what doesn’t. Then, you can engage in constructive criticism while remaining compassionate to what or who you criticize and eventually develop solutions. This is positivity and optimism, and that’s the energy I want in my life: to focus on what I want to see more of.

Of course, I could adapt my X experience. Nobody forces me to click on trending topics and hashtags, but sometimes, it’s hard to look away, even when you know you shouldn’t be looking. I don’t want to sit in a continuous marshmallow test. I could go for sophisticated solutions, such as browser plugins that hide everything except the Following feed, but I don’t feel motivated right now. Also, even if it’s hidden, I’d know it’d be there and feel intrigued to look. I’ve always felt drawn to alternative, decentralized, ethical, social media like Mastodon and BlueSky. While reducing the overall time spent, I want to focus my attention there instead of X for personal social media use. Many people already shifted part-time there. I’ve also connected with peers on private group chats on Telegram and Discord or forums, so an extended break from X will not cut me off from TPOT.

If you’re following me on X, see you on the other side or not. In the meantime, feel free to connect on Mastodon, BlueSky, micro.blog, LinkedIn or Facebook.