Another [Platform] Bites the Dust

About a week after deleting Facebook, I ended my quicker and hotter relationship with Twitter. Let me modify that a bit. I deleted the app from my phone. As long as I don't delete the accounts, it's just a click of the mouse away from where I'm writing now. If I were made of sterner stuff, I would've deleted the accounts outright. As for now, though, I guess I'm hedging my bets that I'll want to be back for the thrill of following sports reporters during Eagles season. Or the chuckles I get from "You Had One Job." Or the geeky thrill of "Map Porn." 

In my time on Twitter I gained an appreciation for the wit geography nerds share via Twitter. Oh, and Merriam-Webster offered some good stuff too. 

Perhaps my revulsion at what social media is doing should be focused more precisely. I should just unfollow the accounts causing the problems. 

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In the last few weeks I had gotten in the habit of checking my Twitter feeds first thing to see the daily you-may-have-missed-it-feature from two journalists I really enjoy: Kai Ryssdal and Maggie Haberman. No problem there. But then I would find several times a day I would get into angry scrolling, and as I came across news stories and reactions I kept getting madder and madder. 

I knew it was time to at least take a break when the unemployment numbers came out yesterday. As you may have heard, the unemployment rate surprisingly dropped. Immediately Twitter was aflame with knee-jerk reactions that were poorly informed both left and right. 

This guarantees Trump reelection. 

The BLS must have juked the stats. 

And I immediately started my rage scrolling over that, overlooking the fundamentals I teach my students in Macro about economic metrics like this. 

They're essential but flawed. 

Tracking the unemployed population is a little bit like a observing a physicians office waiting room. 

Unemployment always understates the true nature of joblessness, and the CPI always overstates the true nature of prices. 

Percentages are deceiving. 

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The nation's newspapers are dying but that's where I need to retreat. I've been home now for about three months and I'm getting restless. It hurts to pull the plug on a couple of platforms that I've leaned on heavily the past decade. Regarding Twitter, I didn't like what I saw I had become yesterday, an adult who overlooks the wisdom of what he teaches to reach for his partisan jersey at the first sign of trouble. 

I guess it's back to finding out the news the old-fashioned way.