So I'm back on @Twitter after unplugging for 12 days. And it was great. I got more done. I slept better. But most of all, I was able to achieve a bit of real peace of mind.

So why am I back on? (thread/1)

For someone with a career in media and communications, or anyone trying to keep up with a fast-moving landscape like the #energytransition, Twitter can be *very* effective if used in certain ways.

I've learned so much on here; my feed is the best one-stop news I've ever had. /2

And I've actually made career connections and even met people who became friends on Twitter. That's the sort of statement I'm surprised to be writing, but it's true; it is a form of connection to the world. /3

That's the upside. The downside: social media is straight-up addictive. Now I'm no expert on neurotransmitters (I learned most of what I know as a self-educating teenage drug user), but there's something going on here w/ dopamine. /4 http://sitn.hms.harvard.edu/flash/2018/dopamine-smartphones-battle-

And when I say "form" of connection to the world, I mean that literally. This isn't like real-world connections. Unless you meet people in person, on phone, or on zoom who you meet here, you don't have a real community. You have a fantasy world. And that's dangerous. /5

I think we started to see the danger of online fantasy worlds substituting for reality in the last few elections. But while it is obvious on the right, this *definitely* happens across the political spectrum.

This isn't the real world, folks. /6

I could go on and on about this, but in the end I've decided to keep using Twitter as my chosen form of social media. Instagram is too much image crack (I like it too much and it isn't useful enough), and @facebook, well, f*** Facebook.

But I'm trying to use it consciously. /7

I highly recommend to all of you that you *schedule* time—at least a week or so—to unplug from all social media from time to time. You need it, and your brain needs it. /8/end