So much noise.

I’ve been on Twitter for 8 years but decided, after I flew back to the UK on Monday, to stay off Twitter for a few days.

My incredibly wise partner suggested that it might be sensible; I was online during the holiday and appreciated the connection with my community while I was in a place where I knew no-one. Being home for a few days before coming back to work, I realised I needed to accelerate slowly. I’ve still been blogging and automatic blog links and posts went out but I’ve not responded or tweeted anything since Sunday. What was particularly interesting was how many notifications you get and how they slow if you don’t contribute for a little while.

It’s freeing – I have no desire to scroll back through the timeline and you realise how little signal is there through the noise. What surprised me was how the best stuff floats; quality content is referenced on Twitter, LinkedIn and through RSS feeds and reflections.

I’ve responded to DMs. Not to do so would be rude.

I’ll look back at the dozens of notifications I’ve had and might respond, but it’s made me think about how I’m using Twitter.

I’m back today, but not to normal – welcome to the new normal.