April 10, 2008
why i deleted my twitter account
[A cartoon from 2007 etc.]
It’s no big deal. I liked Twitter. But I found it too easy.
I think my time would be better spent drawing cartoons and writing books.
That’s just how I feel.
[UPDATE:] This story seems to have made it onto the front page of Techmeme. Lots of people talking about it. Wow.
[UPDATE:] An archive of my Tweets can be found here.
[UPDATE:] A couple of hundred e-mails later, I restored the Twitter account. You can read again it here.
Parting is such tweet sorrow.
But looking forward to the enrichment of simplicity!!!
s
Stopping twitter bold and courageous? Please take some time to leave Silicon Valley and visit the world.
Now you can’t even come back to tell us of your father’s recovery… They are right, you will be seriously missed…
Now to go follow @waynesutton to gloat a bit (I’m @hawksdomain)
What’s “Twitter”?
It is a big deal, we (already) miss you on Twitter.
Twitter is the only way for me to stay somehow close to people I have deep respect. Thank you for that opportunity.
Good luck with the book.
Blogpostate
http://twitter.com/scottandrew/statuses/770080967
miss you
Good for you, not so hot for us… but come back anytime you like, will you?
Hugh,
I am sorry to see you leave twitter. I think this is a huge mistake. I think you lost a huge branding opportunity and effective showed your fans that you did not care. That might not have been the intent… but that is the perception.
I wish you well and remain a fan. More analysis here: http://facereviews.com/2008/04/10/gaping-void-drops-twitter-account-big-mistake/
Cheers!
Rodney Rumford
Obligated to post my own disappointment with your absence. Amidst all the uninteresting and couldn’t-care-less twitterings, I really looked forward to the flashes of insights from one of my favorite bloggers. I look forward to your return!
Wow. Your very own twitter right here on your blog. How ironic.
And no 140 char limit!
I agree with manyof the comments here Hugh — I absolutely understand why you have stopped, but at the same time think it is a shame — that said, if we see more cartoons out of you as a result then yay!
Paul
Good move. Twitter is a time and attention sink unless you use it very, very carefully. More focus, more quality.
Well, congrats and good luck Hugh.
I’m not sure if it will prove a good move or not in the long run.
I would never have found your brilliance if it weren’t for Twitter and my friends there who were friends and fans of yours…
But we all must do what we think best.
I won’t ever delete my Twitter account — even if I stop using it. Because for me it’s a record of my thoughts and experiences and interactions with those I have met and befriended there.
But hopefully it will provide you with less distraction so that you may get your book completed.
Sending good thoughts your way for your Dad’s recovery. Twitter will be less without you there.
But we’ll still be there if you decide to come back.
LMP
good thing
free the muse from the clutter
http://youtube.com/watch?v=fG_F20pB4Tk
Thank you. Too many thought provoking people have disappeared into Twitter and no longer have anything meaningful to share, unless you want to follow, stay connected to tweets or check their tweetstream regularly – and even when you do that, their heart (or mind) is not totally there. Twitter has become an amusing pass time for me, but I have had to turn it off most of the time as it is really more of a distraction than anything else.
Plus, I’m really annoyed that much of the great discourse that has flourished in the last few years has been consumed by Twitter and reduced to 2-second half-thoughts that 90% of the time have no resounding value (to me at least).
I hope more follow you. Thanks.
Nice move, man.
Good to see that you’ve made a decision that works for your life and not the stampede of the crowd. Best of luck.
Who needs Twitter — Puppets are the future
. Go well.…
Well, I’m glad I never signed up in the first place, I had a gut feeling such constant form of ‘life updates’ small chat was going to be distracting. I’m more of a letter guy myself, gives you time to contemplate before you ‘post’.
Hugh stops using “hammer”, world wonders “why?”.
Your cartoon caught it all so well.
Why do caught up caring so much about one communication tool over another?
Keep creating…a story worth repeating,
Mike
good move. maybe spend more time talking to people face-to-face
Good luck, dude. You’re still VERY high on my top 10 list of Internet people I want to meet in person. I can understand how twitter can take away from your other engagements, but your tweets were something I followed closely.
Can’t wait to read your book, and I can only hope one day I’m lucky enough to score a business card with a drawing of yours on it.
For those of us that don’t use Twitter this is like seeing a news story about a long-running tv show getting canceled and realizing that we’ve never seen a single episode. I’m overwhelmed with not caring.
But if it means you’ll be writing more in mediums I might actually access then I’m all for it.
A disappointing day for sure, I will miss your tweets. Do what’s right for you!
But I echo the others… you should really keep the name gapingvoid on twitter or some doosh will pick it up..
Can I have your stuff?
If you twitter about a tree falling down and no one “follows” you, does it shake the ground?
So much energy spent on making a few bits in a database line up in a certain way.
Good thing you’re coming to your senses.
Have to say, I tried Twitter because you seemed so keen on it, but I could never get it. To be honest, it matters less to me the details of what’s going on in Alpine Texas or wherever you are every instant of the day. Those sorts of details were (to me alone maybe) a fairly boring period for gaping void. The brand, not the blog. Neat experiment but I found myself reading “great coffeshop in alpine has wifi, etc. rock on.” and wondering why I was still reading. And then I stopped reading gaping void on twitter and felt much better.
Glad to hear it, personally. Rock on. Etc.
You was bored of doing “Twitter” “Twitter” “Twitter” “Twitter” “Twitter” “Twitter” “Twitter” “Twitter” ?
I can most certainly relate. http://www.changeforge.com/2008/04/01/are-we-to-connected-to-social-media/
I don’t know you, have never met you, in all likelihood probably never will. Up until a few weeks ago I’d never even heard of you.
And yet, I was worried. I’d gotten used to your regular twitters and their varying shades of trivia and gravity. I began to worry that something awful had happened to your dad whose treatment you had been describing.
I’m pleased there were no crises but I can’t understand why you have gone from being such a prolific twitterer to zero. Are you an all or nothing kind of person?
Please return soon with perhaps a twitter in the morning and another before bed.
10:45 – Coffee
10:57 – Toilet
11:02 – Dump finished
11:05 – Twitter my most insignificant day
I tried it. Still have an account but have yet to figure out if it gives me anything at all. Do I really need to know that someone is waiting for a train…or going to a bar…or whatever?
Dear Hugh — I am not surprised –the world happens when we are busy microblogging.. I feel the same.
Hope to see you soon =)
Henry
I remember your Dec. 2 post when you took a stand on blogging. And now books. Good luck in West Texas. No Country for Old Men — and Tweets.
Twitter is not the lifeline some commenters make it out to be. It can be useful sure, but be real, it’s pretty meaningless as a communication medium.
Some people just need find meaning in their own life instead of clinging to others to feel important.
I followed you on twitter for a few days, then stopped — very high “signal to noise” ratio. In fact, most of the high profile bloggers I read I stopped following on twitter for the same reason.
I use twitter, but may only check it once or twice a day, and I feel no need to “catch up” on tweets I’ve missed. I still have good things come of my twitter connections, so I’ll be on the service for some time to come. Like most things, twitter is better in moderation.
I just signed up to twitter last week, I added you and was flooded with an overwhelming amount of twitter…I was about to unsubscribe from your feed, nothing personal, just too much tweet.
for my todo queue: sociological study of the rights & responsibilities surrounding Twitter.…
I hear what you’re saying, Matt. Then again, I had close to 5,000 followers by the time I left Twitter, so I must have been doing something right
I switched off for close on 27 months: 2003 – 5. I know what that was about for me. CYA later.
You can quit me, but I just can’t quit you!
Jeez. comment 140!
I bet you 8 pints of Guinness (or alternative of your choice) in a bar of your choice in either London or Dublin that you have started a trend and many (lets call it more than 5%) of your Twitter followers, ahem, follow you…
Hugh, just don’t stop drawing the flippin’ cartoons. You gotta do what works for you. I’ll miss the tweets both from you and the ones you forwarded as well.
Best of luck with the book.
Cheers,
Tim
noooooo… why?
So. Farewell then @gapingvoid
Your Twitter feed many enjoyed
But now you’ve left to write a book
Typical fucking blogger
Your move shocked me. But it gave me the push I needed to step back. I’m not stopping, just reappraising what I do (blogging) and how I blog. Twitter is ok for me personally. I switch it on when I can and what I miss is OK.
Anyway this is about you. Good move. I could see something was coming via Durham and Alpine. Hope it does you lots of good. Cheers and thanks for your conversation and cartoons. Really enjoy them.
I have a Twitter account — but rarely sign into it, why? I just never remember to (unless one of my followers asks me where I’ve been) plus, does anyone really care that I’ve just had a glass of water or that I’m craving chocolate or if I’m writing? See? Ya I’m totally exciting. Good luck with your book. And I love that cartoon.
I also deleted my twitter account some months ago. I found it really interesting to see that after a while, Twitter is mostly a tool most of us use for distraction. Instead of concentrating on what we’re doing, we’re talking about talking about whatever it is we’re doing. And often times it’s not necessary or even interesting to tweet so much.
I had an “ex” who insulted me for burying myself in a guidebook to a place we were in. I wasn’t really burying myself in it. I was using it to orient myself to the place. The ex twittered a lot. And come to think of it, I wonder why his criticism of me “burying” myself in a guidebook didn’t apply to himself burying himself in the ephemeral internet as opposed to whatever experience he was going through at that moment. Instead the tweeted about it, thus a step further removed from the experience itself.
I totally agree with Sassy who wrote: “…plus, does anyone really care that I’ve just had a glass of water or that I’m craving chocolate or if I’m writing?”
My sentiments precisely. Many tweets are about these kinds of uninteresting random thought bubbles. I find it interesting that how in reading a person’s tweets they may seem very open and communicative but in person they are actually rather hesitant and secretive. Not always true for everyone, of course.
I’ll miss your tweets but will continue to follow via the blog and elsewhere. Twitter’s just a medium for ideas, that’s all. If an artist chooses to forsake watercolor and focus on oils, so be it…they haven’t ‘betrayed’ watercolor.
I’m amused by a couple of long comments that question your decision. If they think your decision was a mistake, shouldn’t they be required to say so in I’ll miss your tweets but will continue to follow via the blog and elsewhere. Twitter’s just a medium for ideas, that’s all. If an artist chooses to forsake watercolor and focus on oils, so be it…they haven’t ‘betrayed’ watercolor.
I’m amused by a couple of long comments that question your decision. If they think your decision was a mistake, shouldn’t they be required to say so in <140 characters?
Hugh, I think there’s should be a “2008” update to that cartoon: “Ah, Texas.…”
‘Cause what I see there is not just the “twitter! twitter! twitter!”, but the fact that all three panels are packed entirely full of things with exclamation points, in exactly the way that your blog this year isn’t.