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Two weeks ago I decided that, after a few years navigating Twitter, I'd had enough of the platform.

I'd reached the conclusion that Twitter was (is) a dumpster fire of angry people, and that I was one of them who had somehow got into the habit of throwing more crap onto the pile while also being a sanitation worker who checked in far too often to haul off a flaming piece of trash, stare at it for a minute, then hurl it in another direction. Sometimes directly back at the person who placed it there.

I put the fire out on April 22nd with the intention of taking time to reevaluate why and how I was using it, if I was to continue using it at all. Here's what I tweeted:

Twitter hasn't helped me become a better, more empathetic or engaged member of any community of which I'm a part of. It has in fact brought out some of my worst characteristics and negatively impacted my mental health. I've deleted all of my tweets and will be taking a break. ?

— Bob Kronbauer (@BobKronbauer)

The "Twittersphere" in 麻豆传媒映画used to be a friendly place where users were kindly referred to as your "tweeps", and people would actually chat with each other about stuff that was happening in the city. Somewhere along the line the "social" part of this variety of social media mostly disappeared and what was left were angry people being angry, yelling at each other and sharing their opinions about how awful everyone and everything is.

I came on board grudgingly at first, registering our official account in 2009. I registered my personal one in 2011.

The V.I.A. account has always served as a sort of broadcasting platform where we share links to our latest stories along with videos, sometimes polls, and often photos. There are a handful of people who still reach out to us on Twitter the way people did when social media was truly social. I don't need to tell you that there are people who also swear at us, and I also don't need to tell you that my decision to personally go off Twitter didn't mean that our team would cease operating our organization's account.

My one started as an experiment, with me trying to find my footing and an actual reason to use it. Eventually I got into a groove of sharing looks into my work and my process, fishing and camping photos, BC history tidbits, moments from my personal life and what I like to think were interesting stories. It became a fun thing to do.

Then one day a blue check mark appeared next to my name and I became a Verified Account. All of a sudden Twitter was telling me that I was important, and that maybe I was more like the hundreds of B.C. media personalities that I follow. I was one of them. I think that's where it took a turn and it started to be less fun for me. Partly because I started using it more and also because of the entitlement and overabundance of pride I felt with that check mark.

I'm going back on Twitter today, and below are the things that I realized in my 2 weeks away from it. I'm posting them here to offer some helpful tips for you readers who may be reevaluating your time online. I'll also be coming back to this from time to time, to remind myself of how and why I use 280 characters to relay information and communicate with humans in this variety of digital space:

1. I block more than 100 people, and this is crucial for the online survival of anyone who's not an egg.

I'll continue to use the block function liberally when peoples' first (or second or third) interaction with me is swearing at me or telling me how and why they think I'm a snake. Even journalists. I won't tell you which of them I block but you see their bylines in the local newspapers every day.

2. "It is hard to hate up close".

This is a quote from former FBI director James Comey's book, A Higher Loyalty, which I took the time to read while I wasn't endlessly scrolling through hot takes. I can't remember exactly what it was in reference to but I think it applies really well to Twitter, and online interactions in general. I'm going to be more mindful of trying to bring myself closer to peoples' points of view and their world experience when interacting with them - as if we were face to face. Also, I'm going to take more time actually talking to humans offline. And reading books.

3. Podcasts are 100x better than Twitter, especially when it comes to 麻豆传媒映画real estate.

If you want to go insane just follow the hashtag #vanre for a week and watch as people (anonymous "experts" and media pundits alike) argue, accuse each other of all sorts of outlandish things and basically eat each other alive.

If you really want to gain insight into the 麻豆传媒映画real estate market you should log off and listen to CBC Vancouver's podcast that just came out. In it Stephen Quinn interviews all types of experts and ordinary citizens; none of them are anonymous. In fact they're all required to state if they're an owner or a renter at the beginning of their interviews, so you know exactly who has what type of horse in the race. It's the best 麻豆传媒映画real estate thing released to date. Subscribe .

4. There are people that I really dislike who are active on Twitter. I will actively work harder to avoid them.

See "1", above. Avoiding people who are toxic or basically disagreeable is a much better strategy when it comes to maintaining sanity and reducing stress than fighting with them or even looking at what they're saying. Block, block, mute.

5. Maybe we should all be nicer to each other.

I'm guilty of breaking a couple of rules my mother laid out for me when I was 5. One was "if you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all" and the other was "do unto others". Twitter actually rewards us for pwning people, but what are a few likes and retweets worth at the end of the day? Not much.

6. None of my friendships suffered as a result of me taking 2 weeks off Twitter.

Most of my real friends aren't even on the platform. While it is an okay place to find news and information, it is not real life. The telephone and humans in real life are time better spent than scrolling.

7. I actually need to be on Twitter every weekday, for my work, and it helps me do my job better.

Now that V.I.A. is no longer simply a lifestyle publication and we're also doing news it's part of my job to monitor what's going on locally, by following journalists and other publications as well as hashtags. My staff and I get leads on multiple stories per day through it, and knowing what's happening in the city is crucial for us. While it can be a filthy stinking hell pit of swine there is still a lot of value in it for me professionally. However I do intend to spend less time on it during my weekends and time off, and maybe replace some of my off-hours screen time by looking at pretty pictures on Instagram.

8. Everything in moderation.

The first couple of days I was off Twitter I kept catching myself thinking of ways to frame something that just happened to me, or something I was thinking, in 280 characters. It was as if my brain had become wired differently after spending quite a bit of time sharing in this format over the past few years. I hope that by not spending as much time on it - rationing my usage - I can keep at least a small part of my pre-internet brain intact. Heck, maybe I'll even reclaim some of it that's been lost.

9. My voice is actually important in this space.

I'm not an arrogant person but I know my strengths. I have unique knowledge and perspective that I've obtained over the last decade, and in all of my work I aim to bring people a better understanding about issues that affect Vancouver, and B.C. more broadly. I'll continue to share stories, behind the scenes looks at my work, local history tidbits and adventures from the outdoors.

10. I should be writing more opinion pieces for our website.

If I really want to share my opinion on something I'll write a piece for V.I.A. (like THIS recent one about cannabis "overdoses" or THIS one about the potential for terrorism in the pipeline debate). I have a meagre 4,500 followers of my own who might see my takes. Meanwhile I've spent the past ten years building up a following for @VIAwesome of 168,000 on Facebook and 140,000 on Twitter, as well as more than 1,000,000 pageviews on our website each month. Easy math.

11. It's okay to throw a little sass.

Every now and then is okay. I am human, after all.

Follow me at and see if I can hold up to my promise of doing better.