In 2012 people joked that Twitter was a place to talk about what you had for lunch. In 2022 the joke is that it’s a place to go when you want to feel absolutely miserable.
Twitter is hell. We all know. The question is why.
My theory: The retweets did it. This simple button, which allows anyone to share someone else’s tweet with their followers, turned the post into a video game where getting the most attention from the most people became the ultimate goal. There are times when this is great – when someone makes a very funny joke, for example. But the convenience of the retweet button leads people to share impulsively, rather than taking the time to write down their thoughts. And it turns out that what people really like to impulsively share is things that make them angry.
Take a look at the trending section now – I’m sure half of it is “someone said something stupid/offensive/wrong and people are mad”, or some variation on that. I, for one, think Twitter would be a better place without retweets, so I figured out how to stop seeing retweets. It made my time much more relaxed and my life less stressful. Here’s how you can do it too.
How to disable all retweets
There is no official way to stop seeing all retweets, but there is a workaround. It’s a bit of a hack, but it works really well. To get started, open Twitter settings and go to Privacy and Securitythen Mute and blockor click here.
Twitter via Justin Pot
Click the plus button in the upper right corner to add a new word to mute. Now, add “RT @”. Like this:
Twitter via Justin Pot
