What Nietzsche's Typewriter Brain Can Tell Us About Twitter Brain

Why did Twitter make my prefrontal cortex feel tight?

I’ve had an on-again-off-again relationship with Twitter since 2007 (yes, I still call it Twitter. I also still call the FedEx store Kinko's). When I started the Art of Manliness, I created an account for the site where I could share links to articles we published.

In the beginning, tweeting was fun, but like many people's experience with all social media platforms, I reached a point where I felt it was consuming too much of my time and mental energy. I found myself checking my feed compulsively, getting drawn into pointless arguments, and stewing about all the dumb-dumbs out there.

In 2016, I decided to mothball my personal account. I set up a service with Buffer.com where I could load AoM links, and Buffer would tweet stuff out for me. I then blocked Twitter from all my devices. The platform and I were done.

But then, in 2020, I backslid—big time.