“Why tweeting about leaving Twitter is pointless and what to do instead”

Spare us the moralizing overkill.

They came as soon as Elon Musk announced he was buying Twitter. A flurry of tweets from users dramatically proclaiming that they would leave Twitter if/when the deal was done.

Thanks to the protracted drama of Musk first reneging on the acquisition and then changing his mind to follow through on his original intention to buy Twitter, for months the social media platform was inundated with tweets making of this sufficient threat. As someone who uses the internet, I’m begging you, please stop. Nobody cares. I’m not the only one. Now, a search for “leaving Twitter” returns as many tweets from people annoyed by that statement as the statement itself, not just jubilant right-wingers.

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To be clear, I’m not asking people not to leave Twitter. It makes sense that people would want to leave the platform if Musk buys it. A polarizing public figure who has a habit of making inflammatory statements, Musk says he sees Twitter as ” the place of the digital city,(opens in a new tab)and wants to limit censorship to promote freedom of expression. But the billionaire who openly disdains(opens in a new tab) ‘woke’ progressives and was charged with fraud(opens in a new tab) by the Securities and Exchange Commission for his misleading tweets, does not lead to belief that his vision of a civilian utopian online forum is genuine or even attainable. Twitter is already overrun with bots and misinformation. Removing content moderation measures could make the situation worse.

So if you want to quit Twitter, I understand. Just stop tweeting about it.

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If you expect to be rewarded for proudly proclaiming your moral integrity, it won’t happen. Twitter is an immoral place where bad behavior is rewarded with attention. If you’re hoping your tweet will go viral, which it won’t because Twitter is already saturated with this claim, what do you care? You’ll be off Twitter anyway, so you won’t even see it. Unless you stay on Twitter, or sneak back, which is even worse because it kind of undermines the whole point of your public statement. Plus, it’s hard not to notice the irony of leveraging the platform to announce that you’re leaving the platform. If you’re worried about people being able to stay in touch, don’t worry. Your online presence follows you everywhere, Twitter followed or not.

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When you tweet that you’re leaving Twitter, you’re limited to two options: become a hypocrite if you end up staying on Twitter, or fuel the political narrative about the culture of outrage that conservative Twitter is currently relishing with glee. Instead, Indigo Buzz senior reporter Christianna Silva offers an alternative. If you’re going to leave Twitter, “disappear and don’t say anything. Let me have a mystery. The mysterious disappearance of your Twitter activity is more likely to attract attention than any abrupt goodbye, which — admit it — was your goal all along.

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