I was banned on Twitter/X for almost 6 months. I was never given a reason why. Whenever I appealed, I ended up in an infinite automatic loop of non-responses leading nowhere. I shudder to think of our futures in the hands of these inane auto-loops. If you think classical muzak on long-hold calls is bad, consider it an angelic symphony compared to stock email answers from a bot.
Last week, when my credit card was again charged for my Blue Check ($8) and Elon Musk subscription ($4) (which I merely took in support of the proof of concept for the subscription model and can hardly afford to be handing money to a billionaire, but m’kay), I decided I was going to get stroppy.
By which I mean, I was going to stop half-arsing my frustration, and take concrete action: reach out to tech contacts who might know people in X Legal; line up folks at Institute of Justice and F.I.R.E.; send one final appeal request.
In response to the receipt I received, I sent an email complaint back. Then suddenly things started to move and within an hour, I was restored, my 20,000 past Tweets came back, and then a bit later, my followers.
Friends and colleagues cheered my return. I’m pretty chuffed too. Follow me now.
But what did I learn during my six-month exile?
The urgency of the news cycle is fake. When you don’t know what’s cooking every second, you… eventually… don’t care AND… it… doesn’t actually matter? That you can, and likely, should, take a break. I’m not even sure I want to be back. I may be cured. I like having my attention span back. While in exile: I wrote more; I read more long form; I listened to more music. I’m going to protect these gains and protect my mind, because those who control your attention, control your mind. Mind your mind, because it matters.