Twitter As Anti Facebook

A simple little thought popped into my gray matter the other day. Instead of abandoning all social-media because it’s all mania, how about I promote Twitter as the single best alternative to Facebook?

The Last Network

This thought also formed into a question: Is Twitter the last viable social network outside of Facebook?

Since I deleted my Facebook and Instagram in the last few weeks, I have continued to enjoy Twitter despite its notorious “dumpster-fire” reputation. In my use, it’s not that bad.

But I have wondered if I might or should eventually delete Twitter too. For now, I like it well enough.

Yet this new thought occurred to me that maybe I should encourage my friends and family and acquaintances to “follow me on Twitter.” Why?

Because practically everyone is on Facebook and stuck using it, so when you ditch it, they may wonder how they’re supposed to connect with you. As if you don’t exist anymore.

For a while, my imagined response was a shoulder shrug. But now, with this nifty new notion, it’s more like, “Hey, I’m still social; get on Twitter where I’m at!”

Kinda like, “Why am I not on Facebook? Well, why are you not on Twitter??” I’m sure that argument will go over like a lead balloon. Humor me.

The Small Network

In case you didn’t know, Facebook is bigger than the biggest country on our planet. It’s “population” doubles that of China’s, maybe more. I think the number is peaking at 2.3 billion!

In contrast, Twitter is like an island off the coast of the Facebook continent; it has only about 350 million users.

Even though Twitter is not ideal in some ways, I think its small social size is a feature with benefits. The number one being, it’s not too big so it’s not too powerful, unlike Facebook.

But maybe I’m deluding myself with cheerful cognitive dissonance.

Seriously though, I like Twitter and use it pretty much daily. I discover some good stuff there, mostly nice thoughts and web articles. With those, I also discover some nice people. I don’t follow many, so I guess that helps. Nor do I have many followers. So the signal-to-noise ratio is not bad for me.

Because of this, I think Twitter is a viable alternative to Facebook, maybe the last one if we’re gonna keep on using social-media. So now, part of my reason to keep using Twitter is as an active way to undermine Facebook’s grip on society.

Settling For Less Could Be More

Anyways, just thought I’d throw that out there. At worst, maybe my idea is the futile rambling of a blogger. But at best, it could be a value proposition, an incentive to encourage more people to leave Facebook and follow along on Twitter.

Yeah, maybe Twitter is the lesser of two evils. But if it’s better than “not existing” online, then maybe it’s worth more of a chance.

If you had to pick one: Facebook or Twitter?