JEREMY JOJOLA

I once called Twitter the nicotine of journalism.

Twitter became more like hard alcohol for me in early 2023. My addiction to the site became a mental health problem as I constantly sought out my Twitter dopamine buzz from sunrise to sunset. 

My days were awash with an endless stream of digital poison always on tap, like a swig of bad whiskey in the morning to cheap tequila at night.  

I’d internally wince when I’d open the Twitter app knowing what I was consuming was toxic, but boy I wanted more of it. I’d chug it all day like a flask. 

I became so intoxicated with Twitter’s ability to amplify and exacerbate rage, I didn’t realize in my own attempt to out-jerk the jerks, I became one of them. I became angry and miserable and I knew I had to quit for good. 

I recently realized this past March marked one year off the site for me, clean and sober. It’s been a year of better sleep and far less angst. And while I do miss it, I don’t miss the mental hangover of getting into an immature Twitter spat. 

“You become what you give your attention to,” the stoic philosopher Epictetus once said. That quote resonates as I reflect on my time on Twitter which spanned 15 years. 

While it’s easy for me to throw stones at the site now that I’m not participating or engaging with it, I can honestly say the vast majority of my time on Twitter was great. I loved engaging with followers who still believed in the importance of local news and I really felt authentic connections to people, especially when I shared vital information during public safety incidents.

I also enjoyed sharing my little dumb inconsequential anecdotes and things I found amusing about everyday life. 

Sadly, the site became over polluted with hyper partisan archetypes. Blue checks became like cancerous cigarette butts littered on a city street corner. It became unhealthy and not a good place 

As I reflect, I believe I made the mistake of believing the site was necessary and intrinsic for my online identity as a journalist, which is probably why I took some of the nasty messages way too personally and too seriously. I felt the need to defend myself to strangers with really horrible opinions. I engaged with pettiness and now I look back at how much of a waste of time this all was. 

I was so blinded with focus on trying to win a game of one upmanship, I lashed out at times at some of these troll accounts in ways I regret and I remain embarrassed for how I engaged with a few of these people. 

Now I liken Twitter to a bus full of middle school children who are constantly trying to come up with clever comebacks or have the best dunk in some sort of diss contest. Not everyone is like that of course, but I hate to admit I was one of them.  

For now, as long as government public safety accounts use Twitter and members of the mainstream legacy media still cite those accounts, Twitter will remain in perpetual relevance, despite its reputation as a primary spreader of misinformation. Like oil and water, it’s a bizarre mix for Twitter to be the source of news but to also be the source of dangerous falsehoods. 

I have many fond memories of my time there, but boy I can say this past year has been so much better for my mental health and focus. I’m also not missing out like I thought I would when I decided to exit.  

I’ll likely keep my account up because some of my old tweets are embedded in news articles about big events and it may someday serve as a reference point for someone who wants to see what happened in real-time during riots, floods, fires, and many other incidents I tweeted about over my 15 years there.

It was a good run…..most of the time.