Christian Contemplations #3: Getting off Twitter for Lent

Really all social media

For millions of Christians, today is Ash Wednesday and hence, the beginning of Lent. Ash Wednesday is observed by Catholics and several, but not all, Protestant denominations. Observing faiths will by and large be holding Wednesday evening services, which sees attendees have an Ash Cross placed on their forehead.

When the ashen cross is placed on ones head, their Priest or Pastor will often say

Memento, homo, quia pulvis es, et in pulverem reverteris.

(Translated) Remember, thou art dust, and to dust thou shalt return."

This practice dates back to Pope Gregory I and reflects the Biblical importance of ashes; which show up multiple times in the text. The ceremony is a reminder that we are all dust (or Stardust, to quote Carl Sagan) and we shall return to the dirt. In the Christian faith, this inevitable death is due to the iniquity of the world and our role as sinful actors. The moment is one of humility and admittance of your own personal faults, while also a reminder of the hope personified in Jesus Crist. While we are imperfect, while we falter, we have been promised redemption and salvation in the Cross.

With this sentiment in mind, Ash Wednesday often kicks off a period of Lenten sacrifice. Over the next 40 days, culminating at Easter, observers will try and take on an act of sacrifice or abstinence for the period. For some, this means trying to give up a vice or tone down an action. For others, its a time to dedicate to more prayer and reading. Others use it as a time for more dedication to charity and volunteering. Not all denominations emphasize Lenten sacrifice and its rarely a demanded practice. In America at least, its most common seen with Catholics, Lutherans, and Methodists. Depending on the Church you attend and family traditions you have, Lent may be a rigid practice or more lax.

The Lenten sacrifice is tied to Jesus’ fasting and temptation in the desert, as told in the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke. Here is where Jesus is famously tempted by Satan, who offers Jesus all the kingdoms of the world. This is in the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 4.

⁸ Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor. ⁹ “All this I will give you,” he said, “if you will bow down and worship me.”

¹⁰ Jesus said to him, “Away from me, Satan! For it is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.’”

¹¹ Then the devil left him, and angels came and attended him.

The passage is not only an important part of the story of Jesus, but it is an important lesson for all modern readers. While you may not have a literal Devil standing next to you offer you the world, you, like I, have all been tempted. Namely tempted to take actions against your core character in the name of prosperity or success. I think we all know someone, or MANY people, who would fail the test of Matthew 4-11. Our current President is a perfect example of that. He’d sell his own soul in a heartbeat for more money and more power. Of course this assumes our President is not the actual devil himself. I’m still 50/50 on that part (and I’m not even remotely kidding).

The time of sacrifice and temptation of Christ is the inspiration for modern Christians going through their own time of sacrifice. Some will engage in fasting in order to mediate and pray more on sacrifice. However, I want to stress this is not meant to be some sort of self-punishment, but rather a time to release yourself from things that have dragged you down and away from God. Whether this means giving up a habit you see as damaging, devoting more time to prayer, or fasting to honor God, the sacrifice should be viewed as a positive, even if challenging, effort. Lent should be viewed as a time of spiritual renewal or growth, not a chore.

With that in mind, I know what is a vice that is dragging me down. Its something that takes up my limited time, raises my blood pressure, brings out the worst in me, and drags me far away from God. With that realization, my plan for Lent is to radically scale back my time spent on social media, namely twitter.

Social Media Poison

As Ash Wednesday approached, I was not sure I would engage in any Lenten sacrifice this year. I have many habits and issues I am working to overcome, but nothing seemed especially clean cut that could be fit into Lent. However, just a few days ago the inspiration came to me as I discussed with my best friend, Danielle, about how much twitter exhausts me. Danielle is also one of my few friends to not work in politics. She, like myself, is a liberal/lefty and is freaked out by all that is happening with Donald Trump’s administration. However, she doesn’t need twitter to keep up on events and get dragging into doom spirals and fights. This inspired my decision.

On the issue of social media alone, the problems abound. Multiple studies have shown the negative effect it can have on mental health and productivity. It brings out the worst in many of us. It’s something that Penny Arcade predicted WAYYYYYY back in 2004. The “Greater Internet Fuckwad Theory” is something that millennials who spent any time in video game chat boards and forums know all too well.

Granted at this point I don’t think anonymity even matters as much for most, as some people are perfectly fine acting like jackasses when we know who they are. And to be clear, this applies to ME as well. I am well aware of my ability to become a massive asshole when my dander is up and I’m on twitter. To continue with the Penny Arcade memory lane, there are plenty of times where I can easily become Gabe in this panel.

The ability of people to be grade-A assholes on social media is one issue, but its hardly the only one, at least for me. I’m 39 years old and grew up in the era of message boards, the proto-social media. Then MySpace came along, then Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. Many of “the youth” are on TikTok these days, but I’ve never allowed that piece of Chinese spyware to be on my phone. Considering my writing about Beijing’s destruction of Hong Kong, I fully supported a ban if they don’t divest. Yes I actively trust every vile US corporation more than Beijing - that is not even a close call. If you disagree, then you should read my Hong Kong series linked above. However bad you think META and X are, and they are bad, the CCP is worse. META and X strive to reach the level of evil of the CCP.

The point being, I have experienced social media through its rise. Today, 90% of my social media is on twitter. As such, moving away from social media is really about me moving away from Twitter.

The Digital Battlefield

Many people have left Twitter since Elon Musk, the un-believing “cultural Christian”, took over the site. For some that was because of their dislike for Musk, for others it was the way it became infested with trolls and NAZIs. By whatever luck, likely by making liberal use of the block and mute buttons, I have cultivate a feed and follower list that is not packed with NAZIs and trolls. I also often mute post notifications for things of mine that get large views, so if people are posting far-right angry replies, I don’t see them. It is not perfect, but its better than what other political friends of mine have had to deal with. No, this is not just about twitter, its about social media and the news we are seeing.

The issue for me is that thanks to the actions of the Trump administration, my social media feed is nothing but things that will piss me off or depress me. My days have often devolved into “doom scrolling” twitter to see what Trump has done lately and what everyone is saying about it. Now, keeping up on the news is important and I am not about to bury my head in the sand. However, I find myself spending far too much time on twitter reading news, the reaction to news, and getting angry about who is or isn’t reacting. Too much time spent seeing “if person X will finally admit this is bad” or “if person Y is still defending voting Green Party.” I find myself getting angry at right-wingers, journalists that sane-wash Trump, and left-wingers who defend their attacks on Biden/Harris. That anger translates into long times spent on twitter either scrolling or arguing. Nothing constructive.

The problem for me on twitter is that I am a very reactive person. Anyone who has followed me online knows that if I have a thought, I’m going to say it. This trait comes from my mother, God rest her soul, and everyone agrees I am my mother’s son. If my mother had a problem with you, she’d let you know. I don’t consider this a negative, but you at times definitely need a filter. My mom had virtually no filter, and my modest filter surely comes from my much more chillaxed father. As a result, I have an opinion on almost everything I see or here, and often it is very hard to resist the “quote tweet” button and lace into something I don’t like.

I don’t regret ANYTHING I’ve said and stand by it all. However, it is well established by secular and religious thought leaders that just because you stand by what you’ve said, doesn’t mean you needed to say it. Plenty of times I’ve gotten into a back and forth that proved to just be a waste of time. Whether this is arguing with a bad-faithed right-wing troll or with a well-meaning left-wing activists. What is the point? All it does is raise my blood pressure and waste time. A big issue here is that debates that play out in public rarely give someone a reason to admit fault or concede a point. You get into a back and forth and think an audience is watching. The fight or flight part of the brain kicks in and a simple disagreement can turn into a real battle. When I think about this dynamic, this Simpsons scene instantly comes to mind.

Now things people say online, at times, may deserve a response, especially if its a notable account. For example, I have long planned to write a response to Brianna Wu, a transgender activist who is going down a bad path of casting aside non-binary and gender non-confirming people in her desperate effort to protect herself from the far-right. My issue here being the queer/LGBTQ community needs to stick together. I’ve engaged back and forth with her on twitter, but I think, what was the point? She’d never concede and argument. Instead of obsessively following what she says each day, why don’t I take note of her position and focus on crafting a newsletter that answers her claims and addresses why I believe she is wrong? Doing a debate in 280 character beats on twitter, all the while in a “fight or flight” mentality thanks to the audience watching, does not help anything.

This is actually something I’ve done before. After me and NYT data guru Nate Cohn disagreed on how to measure swings in an election, instead of doing bit by bit tweets, I just did an article laying out my point.

Issue #86: Visualizing the Georgia Runoff

The point is, there are better ways to engage in debate that sniping on twitter. I have especially been fortunate to have a good following on substack, and have avenues to get things that I believe are important.

It Makes Us Worse

While I have become better at avoiding bait and responding to everything (something my friends who are on twitter have noted) - I still find myself beset by doom-scrolling and just aggravating myself for no reason. Even if I don’t jump into a debate, I find myself watching debates that I have a clear side in, and getting flustered as I watch it play out. I read 20 tweets of people reacting to the same dumb/evil decision Trump is making - instead of just reading an article about it and processing it myself. There is no benefit to this.

All and all, me engaging in a real heated argument on twitter does not bring out the Christian in me. Ohhhh noooooooo, it definitely does not. While my contempt for folks like Donald Trump, Matt Gaetz, and Elon Musk are well founded; as they are all monstrous individuals, twitter had me me contemptuous of so many more. The digital battlefield, as described above, gives us ample reason to view ourself at war with large swaths of people. Not only is this bad for anyone’s mental health, it makes it impossible to be a good Christian. Especially as us Christians are called to love our enemy…

Every enemy…

No matter who….

The video above is very good at discussing the Biblical reality we are called to hold ourselves too. I openly admit to failing at this 9 out of 10 times. We are FAR from a point where I can pray for Trump, Musk, Gaetz, and several others. I’d venture this is true for many. However, twitter had made it so my hardened contempt has branched far out from the true evil folks and just into people who annoy me online. Again a combination of my own reactive personality and the digital battlefield cause this issue.

Even when I take serious issue with how someone conducts themselves, my interactions with them in the online space can turn that head shaking into vicious anger. This is furthered by my general pessimism and fear for the future under Donald Trump’s authoritarian thumb. Hence I have little room for grace or charity toward anyone who doesn’t see the danger he presents. I am constantly on edge while online. If that continues for the next four years, I’ll have a stroke long before Trump is finally gone from the White House.

What I Intend to Do

The sad reality of my life is that my outreach is so heavily tied to social media. My follower count on twitter is 8x what my substack subscriptions are. For reasons beyond my understanding, people care about what I have to say. Others just like my pretty maps. For example, this map got some good traction a few days ago when I posted it to celebrate Florida’s March 3rd Statehood anniversary.

I also don’t believe in conceding ground, which is why I have not called on people to leave twitter as a form of protest. As such, I am not pulling back from twitter to then just go to Bluesky. No this is more about pulling away from spending as much time on special media all together. So how do I do this while still reaching out on issues?

This is my broad plan and goals…. which will result in a 90% reduction in time spent on social media.

• I am not leaving twitter or any social media, my accounts will remain live.

  • The key goal here is to avoid scrolling feeds and getting sucked into long sessions doom-scrolling or engaging in debate

• When I have maps and data points to highlight, they will be posted.

  • This could be something I recently made, or an older map/article that relates to something currently in the news.

• When elections are going on, I’ll be more actively online that day/evening and for reactions.

• I have created Lists on twitter of formal news sources that are easiest to keep up with on twitter. Whenever I log in, I’m only going to those lists to see updates on events (this is commonly War in Ukraine news.) So you may see retweets and such off and on from those.

• I’ll keep my eye on mentions and DMs. I’d say DM me if you need to reach me with a question, and I’ll keep an eye out.

As stated, the goal is not to cut off twitter for good, as I have an audience there I don’t want to just cede. I believe in advocacy and want to use my expanded free time to continue writing, reading, and researching. Time spent doom-scrolling does no benefit to any cause. Going to go into Gandalf mode as he scoured the records in the library of Minis Tirith.

So we will see how this goes. I imagine I may falter at one point and will need to get back on track. I started this effort last night by staying off twitter for the Trump State of the Union. A brief glimpse this morning, which sees people fighting over if more Democrats should have gotten themselves expelled like Rep Al Green did. I will say, this photo goes HARD and I do love it.

However, I cannot anything that is a bigger waste of time than people going back and forth over this while on twitter.

No thanks, not engaging, logging off.