27 July (Part 2) - Twitter Ye Not
I met my friend Mick Barnbrook two weeks ago for a
socially distanced beer and he told me he had given up on Twitter. Under his
@sleazebuster handle he had acquired about 17,000 followers mainly through making fun
of his former knee bending, rainbow dancing, murder covering, politically
correct former employers, the Metropolitan Police.
Part of his Twitter success was down to following everyone who took an interest in his
comments for which Twitter took exception about three weeks ago. For too many Follows in a day his account was put on hold.
He was told that it could be reactivated by inputting a security code that
had been sent to his mobile phone but the problem with that was it was no longer his main phone
and he had lost it. Twitter was not interested in sending the code again and so he was locked out.
What he soon found was that he was sleeping better, no longer stressed, less worried
about the state of the world and has more time for his family and his dog.
It seemed like an attractive idea because I find reading Twitter news depressing
and it does nothing to reduce my hatred for the police, a universal hatred which I
recognise may be irrational and which is in danger
of spreading to more establishment bodies.
So last week I decided that today I would do a Barnbrook on Twitter and delete my account;
the only real use I find for it is Direct Messages. Then I discovered that today is Twitter boycott day. How appropriate!
I’ve not posted anything on Twitter for two weeks so there is little to
lose. The BiB account is already effectively dormant, it may as well go. The
Twitter icons that were part of the Banner above already have.