Lately, I am spending too much time on Twitter (https://twitter.com/@optimiced) & Mastodon (https://mastodon.social/@optimiced), checking the news💙💛 and watching funny cats videos 😺.

But mostly checking the news! I am also using Twitter for connecting with people, both professionally and personally, which is not often but when it happens, Good Things Happen™ — for example, I recently had excellent collaboration with @andybudd & many other fine people which resulted in new Smashing Magazine articles being made!

So, with the exception of some moderate amount of time for connecting and collaborating with real people, Twitter (mostly) takes a lot of my time and this time is not spent wisely. News, funny cats, etc. But it’s not only the news — Twitter is also becoming a bad place (since a certain person with lots of borrowed money acquired it, we all know who) and disinformation and Nazis started really proliferating on this platform. So I was thinking, maybe I need a break? Some kind of “digital detox” or “electronic social time-out”?

I also noticed that while I’m on Twitter, I read less books and serious articles. And am becoming more nervous — because of the news and the Nazis, of course!

So, a break? But what should I do if I stop appearing regularly on Twitter and Mastodon?

I am thinking of the following:
– Remove some dust from my blogs (https://www.optimiced.com/en/, https://www.optimiced.com/bg/). And yes, they provide RSS.
– Change/improve my blog theme, add/remove plugins, do some optimizations and some custom HTML/CSS/PHP.
– Blog occasionally from my phone!
– Start again using RSS to read other people’s blogs. (Can you recommend a good RSS reader btw? I am thinking Feedly.)
– Then help Ani (@molif) — new blog theme, optimizations, nice custom design touches, etc.

And finally…
…Do I plan to stop using Twitter/Mastodon completely? No. (Not for now, anyway.)

But I would like to reduce their use to the *bare minimum* for at least 2-3 weeks. (You can still message me/@ mention me but don’t expect an instant reply.)

It’s time for me regain some sanity. Or at least try to!

P.S. Initially I wanted to make a series of tweets, and then I thought, I have a blog, maybe I should start using it? 😋 And here it is.
But here’s also link to the short Twitter thread that I made: 📝 https://twitter.com/optimiced/status/1673358320118185987

P.P.S. And a short toot is also in order, methinks! :-)