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  1. The AtlanticCaitlin Flanagan7/5/2112 min
    19 reads8 comments
    9.4
    The Atlantic
    19 reads
    9.4
    You must read the article before you can comment on it.
    • ctwardy2 years ago

      This Flanagan piece makes a good companion to Alan Jacobs’, Breaking Bread With the Dead: A reader’s guide to a more tranquil mind. I have that out to reread.

    • [user]2 years ago

      This comment was deleted on 7/11/2021

    • bill
      Top reader of all time
      2 years ago

      My god. This is exceptional.

      It really feels like Caitlin Flanagan is speaking directly to me, and I think that many others in the Readup community will feel the same way.

      I read her words and now I better understand myself, my world, my problems. It's not that I need or want to join a rage fest about Twitter. It's that I need to feel less alone. I need to know that I'm not the only one fighting this fight.

      Twitter did something that I would not have thought possible: It stole reading from me.

      • sater2 years ago

        Great writing, but the argument is flawed and counterproductive.

        She never establishes that her "annoying habit" was an addiction, and I feel like it does a disservice to people struggling with actual addition to suggest that she does.

        Even worse, blaming it on "what those bastards in Silicon Valley had done to me" is ridiculous. It seems to suggest that she (and anyone else who's said something dumb on Twitter and had it blow up on them) is somehow absolved of responsibility because... what? It was the fault of a 30-something product manager in SF?! Give me a break.

        Some of my thinking here informed by a wonderful podcast on the topic of technology "addiction" -- worth a listen.

        https://www.jasonfeifer.com/episode/you-are-not-addicted-to-technology/

        • bill
          Top reader of all time
          2 years ago

          Yessss. I'm stoked to have the alt perspective here. Will def listen to that podcast!

    • DellwoodBarker2 years ago

      Jesus Christ! I just wanted to shit-talk Naomi Wolf and make leprechaun jokes. How did we get into these deep waters?

      Because that’s where Twitter lives.

      Twitter is a parasite that burrows deep into your brain, training you to respond to the constant social feedback of likes and retweets. That takes only a week or two. Human psychology is pathetically simple to manipulate. Once you’re hooked, the parasite becomes your master, and it changes the way you think. Even now, I’m dopesick, dying to go back.

      This read creates gratitude for never getting pulled into Twitter. Facebook and Instagram were my addictions and feels good to be free.

      Palpably expressive read.

    • thorgalle
      Top reader this weekScoutScribe
      2 years ago

      I don’t get tired of reading various personal struggles with social media. Interesting that Caitlin emphasizes how her way of thinking changed, and how thinking in shareable bits changed her writing & reading too.

      Also fun that Patrick prescribes essays to his mom!

      Twitter didn’t live in the phone. It lived in me.

    • Pegeen
      Top reader this weekReading streakScoutScribe
      2 years ago

      This made me feel the addiction which was very uncomfortable! An unsettled mind is a road to hell.