Twitter might have helped create, shape, and define the social media industry, but it’s also a huge source of online hate and negativity. I don’t know what it is exactly that led to Twitter culture being the way it is today, but it’s so hard to post something, anything, without inviting some form of hatred from complete strangers.
From stupid jokes to just your opinion on something mundane, no tweet is exempt from receiving backlash, name-calling, and even, for some unlucky few, doxing. And before you say “herp derp if you don’t like Twitter, why don’t you just delete your account derp”, let’s get one thing straight: Twitter isn’t just some playground for dumb posts and reactions; it has news, updates on world affairs, alerts for natural disasters and crime, and yes, memes and stuff.
So no, quitting Twitter isn’t the way to get peace of mind on the platform, but before you lose hope and actually do the unthinkable act of deleting your account, try these things instead:
Unlike a Tweet
Sometimes, we see a tweet we like, and we tap on the heart or, even, make it a favorite tweet. High praise in the social media age, but that just might invite trouble, should Twitter’s thought police/extremely ‘woke’ people find it and deem it to be completely and utterly offensive to everything they hold dear in this world. So, unfortunately, the best way to avoid this: just unlike or unfavorite the tweet.
Yes, that might seem like backpedaling, but really, sacrificing just a little bit of your morals is a pretty fair exchange for not being crucified online for liking some dude’s tweet about going on vacation in Israel (this means you’re pro-war or whatever).
How to Hide Likes on Twitter
Other than posting an unpopular opinion, one other surefire way to get backlash from your followers (or your follower’s followers) is to like another tweet that might be controversial. This is because tweets you like will often show up in your follower’s feeds, letting them know that you just enjoyed that tweet about some guy eating a ham sandwich, which is basically you declaring war on vegans, animals, and morality itself (or so they claim).
But here’s the bad news (yup, it gets worse), you can’t hide likes on twitter from your followers. They see what you like, and they’re judging you (maybe). But what if you’re confident that your followers and the people you follow aren’t judgmental a-holes, and you just want to hide from the angry internet mob that’s just waiting around the corner? And before you think your deleted tweets are safe, they are, but only if no one took a screenshot of it before you deleted it.
The best way to hide likes on Twitter is to simply make your profile private. To do this, you’ll have to activate the “Protect My Tweets” option on your profile.
Step 1: Go to your home screen and click on your profile icon. A drop-down menu will appear. Go to “settings”.
Step 2: Open the “Security and Privacy” tab and look for the “Privacy” section
Step 3: Tap the box next to the option that says “Protect my Tweets”. Tap on Save Changes.
That’s it, now you’re safe from the prying eyes of the internet mobs, saving you just a bit of grief and backlash should you say or do something even remotely resembling an opinion. For now.
Stop Seeing All Those Retweets
But maybe you’re not afraid to be controversial, because you’re a big boy/big girl who can handle themselves; however, you are getting sick and tired of seeing all the RT’s you’re seeing from the people you follow. Luckily, there is a way to stop seeing retweets, but only for desktop Twitter. And only if you’re using Google Chrome.
So while this option is pretty specific, it’s an option you could take, as Twitter doesn’t actually allow this. It’s an effective workaround that lets you silence other people’s opinions. Because, really, you stopped caring about what this person likes, you’re just a little too lazy to scroll through your Following list and unfollow them.
To stop seeing retweets:
Step 1: open your Following list and press “End” on your keyboard.
Step 2: Click on the three dots in Chrome’s top-right corner to open the main menu. Go to “More tools.” From there, choose “Developer tools.” You can also press Ctrl + Shift + I.
Step 3: At the bottom of the code, add the following line and press Enter: a=Array.prototype.slice.call(document.querySelectorAll(“div.ProfileCard-content div.dropdown”));a.forEach(function(e) {e.querySelector(“button”).click(); e.querySelector(“li.retweet-off-text button”).click(); })
It sounds complicated, and that’s because it is, but at the moment, that’s the best you can do to get a little peace of mind every now and then.
Mute Certain Phrases
If you don’t feel like doing some basic coding, the next best thing you can do to find peace of mind on Twitter is to Mute certain phrases and keywords. Not only does this eliminate those words from your feed, leaving it free of all the noise you simply don’t want to see, it also hides suggested Tweets and suggested people to follow. Neat!
And it’s actually simple to do: just go to your Twitter settings and you’ll see an option to Mute words. Here are some words and phrases you can consider muting:
– ActivityTweet
– RankedOrganicTweet
– suggest_activity_tweet
– suggest_activity
– suggested_recycled_tweet_inline
– suggested_grouped_tweet_hashtag
– suggest_pyle_tweet
– suggested_rank_organic_tweet
– suggest_ranked_timeline_tweet
– suggest_recycled_tweet
– suggest_sc_tweet
– suggest_recap
– suggest_who_to_follow
– generic_activity_Highlights
Disable the Algorithm and Go Back to Your Follower’s Tweets
First introduced in 2016, the Twitter algorithm was perhaps the app’s most controversial decision, and for good reason: it really sucked and was such a transparent attempt by Twitter to mass market certain profiles and products.
Thankfully, Twitter sort of backtracked and gave people the option to turn this off. Of course, this option wasn’t exactly broadcasted outside of regular tweets and blog posts from the company, but at least it’s there. To disable the algorithm and go back to see your follower’s actual tweets:
Step 1: Go to the “Privacy and Safety” tab and scroll down to “Content” and open that.
Step 2: Go to “Timeline” and disable the algorithm by unchecking the box next to “Show the Best Tweets First”.
Now you can go back to your meme lord friend’s epic cat memes and what-not!
Finding Peace on Social Media
Look, social media has brought a lot of great things to the world, not the least of which is being one of the last bastions of free speech (although our concepts of ‘free speech’ might differ), but that’s exactly what made social media pretty stressful as well.
People interpret “free speech” as meaning “I can say whatever I want, when I want, how I want, and you can’t stop me!”, and in a way, they’re right. Of course, you can argue that freedom should have no bounds, but maybe we should limit ourselves and stop dragging people online?
Or, you know, just delete the app. Let’s just get it over and done with.
