Like most people, I usually want to avoid detours when travelling from point A to point B, and the same is true when I’m enjoying content and engaging people online. Unfortunately, that’s not possible everywhere.
For example, on Twitter—even as a paying customer—I had to scroll through promoted tweets (i.e. advertisements) and was thus delayed from getting on with my life. This should never be the case, at least not for paying customers.
Other platforms, like Reddit and YouTube, have some kind of no ads policy for paying customers, but Twitter has a vague “half ads” policy. Over time, it felt like I was encountering a greater, not fewer, number of ads on Twitter and this made my experience there feel like a waste of time and money, which to me is unacceptable. So, as a matter of principle, I left.
Ultimately, I want to be the one who decides what I see and interact with online, not a social media company.
Fortunately, we live in a free society and can make our own choices. If a social media platform (i.e. a product) sucks, you can move to one that you think is better. So, that’s why I’m here and no longer there.