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[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.

Comments

  1. Pamela Slim says

    Wow. I don’t know why I am surprised, but I am.
    What a decisive move. In support of your emerging book.
    Good for you.

  2. Ric says

    Apparently getting rid of a Facebook account is not all that simple … when they say it’s deleted you may find that all your entries, news feed items etc. still exist ….

  3. Shai Coggins says

    Missed your announcement on this on Twitter. So, it’s a bit of a surprise. I even still remember your Tweet saying Twitter has become important to you because of the # of followers you had, etc. But, I can understand where you’re coming from to some degree.
    In any case, you’ll be missed on Twitter. But, I’m sure we’ll continue to hear from you.
    Good luck with the new direction of your writing/blogging/social web/drawing life.

  4. mdy says

    Wouldn’t you want to keep your Twitter account if only to keep someone else from claiming that name? Even if you don’t update it ever again?

  5. Gregg Scott says

    Now I can rest assured that my Timeline-gobbling rant of 10 days ago isn’t the reason you’ve closed shop. It was only reason you stopped Following me.
    This is a bold and courageous move as Twitter is becoming a vortex – perhaps a vital one – in which I find it hard to manage or even attend to real life.
    An artist’s aura of empathy is a precious field which can so easily be corrupted by distraction; even good distraction.
    I look forward the 2008 panel on the History of Your Blog.
    I thank you for your thoughtful discourse in the Twitter Timeline on the legacy of W. and the ramifications of the 49th Parallel.
    Say what you will of Twitter but it is quite unlikely that I would have had the opportunity to converse with the likes of Steve Gillmor, Laura Fitton and yourself.
    Now, I’m going to text @mydishes and tell them to wash themselves so I can check my current replies.
    Gregg

  6. Seth E says

    So is everything you ever wrote on there just…gone? Is it all really that worthless? I ask that not just of your account, but in the greater sense. Would you ever, say, do the same thing to your blog? Just hit ‘delete’ and flush it all away. Is everything we’re doing here completely disposable?

  7. Joe Andrieu says

    Doh!
    A said day, Hugh. I enjoyed your random updates from Alpine.
    We’ll miss you.

  8. Geoff says

    I wonder when gapingvoid.com will become a gaping void?

  9. Mickipedia says

    I will miss you.

  10. Tantek says

    Hugh,
    Your twitters will be missed, past and present. Did you consider simply letting your Twitter account stay frozen in time for the indeterminate future? I know I (and several folks I know) will miss numerous gems of yours that we had favorited. Perhaps you could consider doing so – I think the Twitter folks have the ability to pull old accounts out of cold storage or something.
    Thanks for all the art you create in all forms.
    A fan,
    Tantek

  11. hunee says

    I will miss your tweets…but wherever you are happy ..follow your heart… 🙂

  12. Cindy says

    I’ve always heard toxicity is a function of dose. And then there’s something about moderation that people harp about. So I s’pose if one could Twitter just enough but not too much, that would be nice. You’re right, though, about it being just too easy.

  13. DunCAN Fischer says

    Good move.
    I congratulate your decision. FOCUS is a key skill to create the best of whatever it is you are into.
    D

  14. Dave O'Flynn says

    It wasn’t because you couldn’t tweet about anything other than Alpine, Texas then? 😉
    But yeah, tools like Twitter, Facebook, et al encourage a fascination with the minutae of life. Makes it much harder to concentrate on the things that require uninterrupted though.
    Good luck with the book!

  15. Jeff Tidwell says

    drawing is good!

  16. Chris Heuer says

    It’s become a 24/7 conversation like a stadium chat room instead of a microblogging platform now – I enjoy being connected to everyone, but I understand why you want that hour or two back each day. Very bold move, kick ass on the book and dont look back…

  17. dydimustk says

    You will be missed.
    Your conviction and determination is inspiring.

  18. Victoria Marinelli says

    Wow, does your cartoon ever resonate for me. Although for me, the midpoint between when I started blogging and now – when I was first getting seriously derailed – revolved more around politics than tech, a pattern which has more or less continued. (Case in point: 80% of all my recent blog posts are twitter digests; another 15% or so are either explicitly political or explicitly tech-related. Which leaves – if one is assessing things generously – maybe 5% of content that is in line with my original blogging intent; that is, it favors literary narrative over polemics.)
    Finding balance is a precarious and difficult feat. (Or we make it so, through all our collective and individual distractions.)
    In any event, I quite respect your choice here, and hope it bears fruit for you in terms of improved focus and attention to matters of craft, the stuff you live for, the stuff you love.
    And which, of course, you’re incredibly good at.

  19. Rachel says

    Oh. A surprise. It was only a few weeks ago you were saying it was the only way you were going to communicate, you were not using email. So the blog is what it left.
    But I’m with the others – why delete? Why not just mothball and leave the information up there? You’ll be missed.

  20. John T Unger says

    Wow, Hugh, I guess you *were* serious.
    Didn’t think you’d delete the account though, figured you were gonna just stop posting to it. Or that you were kidding.
    I feel like you deleted part of my email inbox. Part of it that I was saving because I liked it. I don’t go for that inbox zero stuff… I save the things I like.
    I’m bummed about losing the ability to chat with you on twitter, but really kind of even more bummed about losing one half of tweet replies and DMs between us. I’d have copied those if I knew this was what you had in mind. Bummed that all the tweets of your I had in my favorites are also gone. I guess I should have backed shit up, eh?
    I can totally see why you’d rather work than tweet, and can even understand having to take a nuclear option to avoid “accidentally” getting back into it. But I wish you’d left the frickin’ pages up and just locked yourself out of the account with a password you couldn’t remember or something.
    And yeah, I know they were your words and you have the right to do whatever you want with them, etc. Just wish you hadn’t.
    Drastic measures, man. You know what? Fuck. That’s really all I have to say about it. I’m fucking pissed off. Just wanted to get that off my chest.

  21. jflowers says

    Seems like 2007 should really have read, “SOCIAL OBJECTS! SOCIAL GESTURES! SOCIAL MARKERS! (twitter!)” You really didn’t say much about Twitter until the very end of the year (and the beginning of this one), and for those of us who never read your tweets, it was only a very few mentions.
    I honestly never understood your fascination with it in the first place. It displays too little information in too impersonal a context for it to really matter to anyone (even less so than Facebook, in my opinion). Sure, you can title them “@whomever”, but it’s very much a public conversation, and you still can’t say all that much for it to mean much of anything to anyone. Kind of goes against a lot of what you say about social objects and making real connections and whatnot. Not to say that Twitter doesn’t have its uses, but as the main #1 personal contact of a person, or for doing any kind of business with an even slightly articulate message…it is just not the right tool for the job.
    Glad you finally saw your own light 😉

  22. Baher says

    After your excitement and evangelism of twitter, this comes as a total shock to me.
    And this “too easy” reason is not a meaningful explanation, is it?

  23. Mike says

    I guess I knew it had to end eventually. You were following, and being followed by, too many people for it to be sustainable for long.
    Limits are a good thing. Twitter is working so well (for now) because it placed a limit on what you could do (send updates) and imposed a challenging limit on length (140 characters). These limits make you boil down your thoughts until only their most valuable core remains.
    Unfortunately, like all the other social networks out there right now, Twitter has not placed a limit on connections with other users. And because there is no limit, these connections have less value than they could, with people trying to scoop up friends by the thousands.
    Maybe in the future someone will develop a mechanism that makes people sit down and spend a couple of minutes figuring out which connections are the really valuable ones to have. Until then, we probably need to try and place that limit on ourselves. Consider it an interpersonal diet.
    Personally, I’ve found that following 30 people has been working well, so maybe I will try and stick with that. I guess after tonight I am left with one spot to fill, and boy it sure does it come with some big shoes.

  24. John Wesley says

    If it means more cartoons and writing I’m all for it.

  25. Phil Whitehouse says

    Can’t help feeling that if you’d followed the ten commandments (http://www.twitter.com/tencommandments) you might’ve gotten a more enjoyable and sustainable experience out of twitter…

  26. Tim Draayer says

    Hugh,
    Its admittedly been to long since I’ve spent some time here but I was following you on twitter.
    I enjoyed your updates but I admire your decision to commit to the tasks at hand which don’t delude your efforts.
    All the best.
    Tim

  27. Peter Cooper says

    I think I see a good point in this somewhere, but what intrigues me is how Jaiku is less easy…? 🙂

  28. Neil Simmons says

    Sad to hear that, Hugh – but you gotta do what you feel is right for you!
    Good luck with the book.
    Regards
    Neil (dungeekin)

  29. Tom Raftery says

    Wow Hugh,
    On the one hand I am shocked at such a big move and on the other hand I can understand it perfectly.
    I have said many times that my blog output has diminished drastically since I started using Twitter. It is an incredible time sink.
    Having said that, I get enormous value from Twitter so I would find it very difficult to drop it.

  30. Bernie Goldbach says

    Fair play to you for knowing where to spend time for best effect. I like your drawings more than I liked your tweets because your drawn characters on cards stick with me longer than your typed characters on screen.

  31. Cara says

    Talking to a friend the other day about
    “How to be creative”
    He wondered why you recommended to “stay away from crowds ” .
    You overheard that, didn’t you?

  32. Ariel Waldman says

    Aw, I’m so sad! How is your prediction supposed to come a reality without you there!?
    https://www.gapingvoid.com/Moveable_Type/archives/004000.html

  33. richard galbraith says

    what happened to ‘if you’re not on twitter i dont want to talk to you’ ? weird, anyway, looking forward to more cartoons.

  34. Locutus of Borg says

    Hugh on February 29th:
    “Note to World: If you’re not on Twitter, I don’t want to make friends with you.”
    Funny how things turn out 😉

  35. Christian says

    I thought I read somewhere that you had a financial twitter??
    Oh well, I agree with Duncan Fischer, Focus is a good thing!

  36. Dileepa says

    What an apt cartoon. Instead of using technology to talk about other things, all people seem to talk about is technology itself. Crazy, crazy world.

  37. Mary Anne Davis says

    Seems kind of harsh…

  38. jill says

    Thank god for that. Now you just need to convince Scoble.
    I personally enjoy your considered and stylish posts to be unconfined by the twitter 140 characters. Hopefully you will return to blog posting a little more frequently, even if it is ‘just’ the cartoons.
    I enjoyed texting my friends but when I stopped we had even more to talk about over a glass of wine. I am now online only three days a week, it feels like breathing again.

  39. Mike Doeff says

    I hope that Twitter reserves the gapingvoid user id – sort of like a sports team retiring a player’s number – for you in case you decide to return someday.

  40. Texas ranger says

    why is this a loss? Spent way to much twitter time talking about the Texas move. We get it, you moved to a small TX town. zzzZzzzz

  41. Alvin says

    I will definitely miss your tweets. Bummer too, because 3 days ago I was excited when I got the Hugh MacLeod is now following you e-mail.
    Happy drawing and writing.

  42. Rob Clark says

    I’ll miss having you as part of my daily twitter stream, Hugh, but definitely understand the decision.
    It gets far too easy to just enjoy the content of others and not create your own … and the 140 chars is often enough to satiate that need to express one’s self, but not nearly enough to make an impact.
    I look forward to seeing the increased output of cartoons though.

  43. christoff says

    I did enjoy reading the tweets about your various misadventures. I think you should come back, but limit yourself to 5 tweets a day.

  44. Beppone says

    Good choice… i need your cartoons 🙂

  45. fred wilson says

    i agree with most of the comments on this thread.
    mostly that you will be missed.
    but like many forms of social media, twitter can be addicting and if it was getting in the way of important work, then you made the right call
    i hope you will still keep blogging and i hope all of your friends on twitter will keep linking to your blog and your drawings
    fred

  46. Average Jane says

    We’ll miss you on Twitter, but I agree that it can be a time suck.
    Looking forward to the book!

  47. liza says

    WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!
    WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!
    snif
    snif
    WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!

  48. Alex says

    You will be missed! I enjoyed getting your updates from your travels and from Alpine, but I suppose you’re looking for more creative and thoughtful media than 140-character tweets (and 2005 was a good year for blogging).

  49. Roland Hesz says

    Well, your tweets will be missed.
    Anyway, good luck with your book and your other plans.
    And it was a pleasure to read you there while it lasted. 🙂

  50. Jon Shuler says

    One less Pillar right?

  51. T-Lex says

    I have been feeling the exact same way about this whole twitter phenomenon.
    I feel like following suit, haha.

  52. umbluteleleu says

    bored already?

  53. George Nimeh says

    Thank god Hugh!
    Huge waste of time. It is f*ckign navel-gazing at its finest and a totally uncreative activity. Get on with your lives people. We are much more than a collection of sound bites.
    And as for Twitter’s business model, in “Tell me the future” (The Guardian, Monday December 3 2007), Biz Stone claimed (and predicted) that Twitter has emerged to create a seamless layer of social connectivity across SMS, IM, and the web. Twitter asks one question: “What are you doing?”
    That same day, I predicted that “at some point in the next five years, investors will ask Biz Stone one question: “What are you doing?”
    If they don’t get bought by Google, they’re doomed.
    http://www.i-boy.com/weblog/2007/12/copredictions.html
    ~G~

  54. Kevin Briody says

    Good for you Hugh. I’ll miss your tweets on everything (including the #alpinetexas posts, which were fascinating), but that will just make me pay more attention to your blog again. Focus is good. 🙂

  55. BryanA. says

    It’s too true. The Internet at large can make us forget who we are and what really pleases us. Go For It!

  56. BarbaraKB says

    I have to admit, I have considered the same. On certain days, Twitter can be quite a distraction from the real work I need to do…
    Congrats on your bold move, Hugh.
    Here’s to more cartoons and a finished book from you.
    Peace.

  57. /pd says

    Bollocks – you cant leave just like that !! What will we do w/out you in twitterville ? :)-
    Hmmmm is this twitter fatigue or impact of continuous partial attention ? Maybe your the early adopter – signaling something that is undefined.. somthing like remember bloggers who have stopped blogin!!

  58. Frank Martin says

    That has not been my experience – I’ve been MORE productive, AND more intelligent about the production AND my production has been more intelligent.
    You added much to our community. We’ll miss you.

  59. Rex Hammock says

    As everything you send out via RSS finds me, as long as you’re on the grid and creating, I hope to hear the ping. Can’t wait for you book. All the best.

  60. paul says

    You’ll be back…..

  61. Stewart Johnson says

    @mdy
    > Wouldn’t you want to keep your Twitter account
    > if only to keep someone else from claiming that
    > name? Even if you don’t update it ever again?
    You can’t register an account with a name that’s been deleted. They clearly warn you about that on the delete page — if you want to re-register it later on your stuffed.
    (I registered, tweeted once, then deleted my account a while ago. It’s not for me either.)

  62. alexdesignz says

    You could have stopped Twittering except for important messages. I would have never seen you work if it wasen’t for Twitter.

  63. Rob Safuto says

    Congratulations. I think many people, including myself, tend to get caught up in all these tools. Where is the focus going? It’s going away and that’s not a good thing. Less content. Higher quality. Sounds a bit like Jerry Maguire. Good stuff.

  64. Joe Latone says

    I apologize for insulting you by saying I was going to unfollow you. Ah, well, if this means you’re reverting back to 2005, all the better. (:

  65. John Ratcliffe-Lee says

    Interesting move, Hugh.
    It makes a lot of sense for you, business-wise, to increase focus like mentioned above.
    Although, on a larger scale, this is an embodiment of your very telling cartoon. Most markets are built on execution, communication and the marketing of ideas (in whatever form they take). There has been a large up-swing in communicating our ideas to the point of dilution. People are starting to realize that we’ve got the channels in place and now it’s time to focus back on what we’re actually trying to say.
    Circles, hills & valleys, et al.

  66. Scott Fassett says

    Man, and I JUST found you like 2 weeks ago.

  67. Jason Adams says

    Ahhh.. Tone above the hum – good move. Time to get back to 2005 (maybe 2004?), just don’t pull an Into the Wild move on us. Your work continues to guide me and those I share it with. Looking forward to the book.

  68. Lauri says

    Well, Jaiku is better than Twitter anyway. ;D

  69. Joe says

    You shouldn’t del the account, tho, Hugh. Someone might pick it up and use the id to do a fake Hugh. Instead, unfollow everyone then block your account, in effect making it an orphan id.

  70. Christian Burns says

    If Twitter was keeping you from doing something important, than more power to you Change the world 🙂 Then you need to call into the Gillmor Gang from time to time so we can catch up on you. You are still important to us.

  71. Nathan Clark says

    It’s a good move if your alternative is writing and drawing. If it was watching tv or surfing the web, it’d be a regression.

  72. Daniel Andrlik says

    You’re a better man than me. I’ve been debating doing the same thing, but I haven’t been able to bring myself to cut that particular cord.

  73. Kerri. says

    Congrats on removing yourself from the Abyss that is Twitter.

  74. logtar says

    I just paced myself… but this is truly a warning… that is why I don’t push that feed anywhere.

  75. Thomas says

    I started my time clock on how long this would take as soon as Hugh left facebook after being such a big promoter for a while, I can’t say I am surprised in the least. I do agree you ought to keep the account as a placeholder as someone else mentioned.

  76. Aruni says

    Wow, that is a bold move. I’ve met some great people on twitter. It does take time, but so far it’s been fun.
    Was it something that happened at SXSW that triggered all of this?
    Sounds like you are an all or nothing kind of guy…

  77. Remiss63 says

    Congratulations on taking some important steps to focus your energy Hugh. I’ll miss your Tweets for sure, but understand completely how something like Twitter can begin to consume your time, energy, and life giving short shrift to those things that are truly of greatest importance.
    Perhaps we’ll find a way to balance the multiplicity of communication methods one of these days. Perhaps a gadget . . . or a mashup . . . or ?

  78. Alias says

    Twitters is for twits. Enough said.

  79. joaquin says

    Hmmm…feels like the last time I was dumped. Twitter loses a lot of value for me (“it’s who u follow, not who follows you”, remember?)
    Everything’s been said, so if this ALIGNS your daily actions with long term focus, great. There’s stuff to think about in all you say, this decision isn’t any different..
    Thanks for all the insight on your tweets.

  80. Susan Beebe says

    Hugh,
    Sorry to see you go from twitter! I loved reading your tweets. Interesting move towards achieving maximum signal to noise ratio… can’t say i blame ya! Best of luck to you as you launch forward in your “new chapter” in life – pun fully intended!
    So, now i’ve gotta check out your blog more to keep up with you… 🙂
    Susan
    @smbeebe on twitter

  81. Thejesh GN says

    All the very best

  82. Reginald says

    Why do you consider your cancellation “no big deal”; considering all the hype about twitter?

  83. Peter Gold says

    I’ve only just joined.
    1. I understand why you’ve left.
    2. Do I see the future before me?
    3. Should I act now before it’s too late!

  84. steve says

    Welcome to the Twitter free!

  85. Owen Cutajar says

    You’ll be back .. I know you’ll be back …

  86. Ken Wallich says

    I found the “Cheerio”, followed by the immediate disappearance of the account to be a great statement, very theatrical. I miss the archive and favorites, but think I liked the statement even more!

  87. chaosgone says

    I’m still in the youtube! youtube! youtube! phase. I should write more.

  88. Jyri says

    I’m with John Wesley. If it means more writing and cartoons, awesome

  89. Offbeatmammal says

    I’ll miss your commentary on life throughout the day, but at least the blog is here to stay.
    And the cartoons. And we have a book to look forward to (where’s the pre-order form!)
    you’re not downsizing… but rationalising!
    Enjoy Alpine 😉 Have a Shiner Bock for me (one of many little things I learnt from your tweets and now my life is better!)

  90. Hjörtur Smárason says

    And I was just getting to know you. Guess I got twitterized to late.
    Now the question will be, is there life after twitter?
    Good luck on the other side. Look forward to the book.

  91. D.J. Coffman says

    I’ll miss it! But at least we have your thoughts here.
    Everybody buy Hugh’s book when it comes out!

  92. Eric Gonzalez says

    Bold move, but understandable if your priorities are the blog and the book. I wish you the best with both.
    A recurring meme I keep hearing and reading is when to internalize and when to tweetsource for inspiration. Funny how these memes come in waves.

  93. Wayne Sutton says

    I truly understand how you feel. I took 2 1/2 days off twitter after the UNC lost and I was more productive and focused. Twitter does require a lot of time. It’s almost like internet phone talking, when you’re on the phone you can’t do as much as when you’re off it. I’m going to stay on twitter for a while but going to try to focus on projects more.
    I’m @waynesutton on twitter and I’m not deleting my twitter account.

  94. Noel Jackson says

    Doing what *actually* matters is a smart thing.
    Twitter is a vast distraction that probably outweighs it’s benefits.

  95. Connie Crosby says

    Hugh:
    I enjoyed following you on twitter, and wish you all the best in gaining back your focus.
    Cheers,
    Connie

  96. Alexander Falk says

    Good for you. I only use Twitter from my iPhone and mainly to stay in touch with friends and family. I never succumbed to the huge trap and/or time-sink it can become, if you try to actually read the stuff of all the people you are following… 🙂

  97. Joe says

    If deleting your Twitter means more energies towards HTBC: The Book, then I’m all for it.

  98. David Armano says

    Will miss you on Twitter, but completely understand. Best of luck with the book. Keep your creative well full.

  99. Lawrence Salberg says

    The first “big” abandonment of Twitter. Good for you. The sooner it dies, the greater our chances of redeeming our civilization.
    There’s nothing more annoying than a Twitterhead. Not even an Apple Fanboy. Not even that.

  100. Michael says

    The odd thing is that I was listening to this week’s Gillmor Gang just a few minutes ago and someone was praising Twitter for the ability to recommend good asian restaurants in NYC.

  101. Crawford says

    Parting is such tweet sorrow.
    But looking forward to the enrichment of simplicity!!!
    s

  102. Anonymous says

    Stopping twitter bold and courageous? Please take some time to leave Silicon Valley and visit the world.

  103. Paula Hawk says

    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) 🙂

  104. Bo says

    What’s “Twitter”?

  105. Mariela says

    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.

  106. scottandrew says

    Blogpostate
    http://twitter.com/scottandrew/statuses/770080967

  107. ninefish says

    miss you

  108. Shelley says

    Good for you, not so hot for us… but come back anytime you like, will you?

  109. Rodney Rumford says

    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

  110. Don The Idea Guy says

    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!

  111. Julian says

    Wow. Your very own twitter right here on your blog. How ironic.
    And no 140 char limit!

  112. Paul Fabretti says

    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

  113. David Koopmans says

    Good move. Twitter is a time and attention sink unless you use it very, very carefully. More focus, more quality.

  114. GeekMommy says

    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

  115. Andy Sermovitz says

    good thing
    free the muse from the clutter
    http://youtube.com/watch?v=fG_F20pB4Tk

  116. Johnson says

    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.

  117. Vincent says

    Nice move, man.

  118. Tom Guarriello says

    Good to see that you’ve made a decision that works for your life and not the stampede of the crowd. Best of luck.

  119. alan p says

    Who needs Twitter – Puppets are the future :). Go well….

  120. jswa says

    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’.

  121. Mike Wagner says

    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

  122. KB says

    good move. maybe spend more time talking to people face-to-face

  123. Mitch Canter | studionashvegas says

    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.

  124. Matt says

    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.

  125. Shannon says

    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..

  126. Prokofy says

    Can I have your stuff?

  127. GeekTieGuy says

    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.

  128. sam says

    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.

  129. Bp says

    You was bored of doing “Twitter” “Twitter” “Twitter” “Twitter” “Twitter” “Twitter” “Twitter” “Twitter” ?

  130. Ken Stewart says

    I can most certainly relate. http://www.changeforge.com/2008/04/01/are-we-to-connected-to-social-media/

  131. ickledot says

    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.

  132. David Everitt-Carlson says

    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?

  133. henriette weber andersen says

    Dear Hugh – I am not surprised -the world happens when we are busy microblogging.. I feel the same.
    Hope to see you soon =)
    Henry

  134. Jeff says

    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.

  135. Tomas says

    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.

  136. Michael C. Neel says

    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.

  137. matt says

    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….

  138. hugh macleod says

    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 😉

  139. Dennis Howlett says

    I switched off for close on 27 months: 2003-5. I know what that was about for me. CYA later.

  140. Suebob says

    You can quit me, but I just can’t quit you!

  141. Clive Birnie says

    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…

  142. Tim Letscher (let5ch) says

    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

  143. red_fox says

    noooooo… why?

  144. Kyle MacRae says

    So. Farewell then @gapingvoid
    Your Twitter feed many enjoyed
    But now you’ve left to write a book
    Typical fucking blogger

  145. dc crowley says

    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.

  146. Sassy says

    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.

  147. Thib H. says

    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.

  148. Thi says

    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.

  149. rsomers says

    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?

  150. Brooks Moses says

    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.

  151. Susie says

    I didn’t realise you’d left twitter till I read about in an online subscription this morning…
    I totally understand why… its very distracting. But at the same time I really liked getting to know you and enjoyed your distractions.
    Susie 🙂
    (KahunaGirl)

  152. S. P. Gass says

    I applaud your decision: http://lowtechtimes.com/2008/04/15/stop-twittering-or-never-start/
    Best of luck to you!

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