This is how happy I like to be:

But I am not that happy right now. And when I get on Twitter or Reddit, I feel un-happy.

Correlation does not, as we know, equal causation. So when I tell you that I am not happy about Twitter moving towards a curated feed where you have to pay to ensure that your followers read all of your tweets, I’m not going to say that Twitter made me unhappy. But I am unhappy with that.

Likewise, I can’t tell you that some unforgivably bad remarks from Reddit’s CEO made me unhappy. But I am unhappy with them, and with other behaviour there.

So: I am going to take a break. More than a break, I am going to take a trial separation. That’s different than a vacation or sequester or hiatus. A trial separation is a period during which you try to separate yourself from something you’ve decided is toxic.

I want to be clear: I am not saying that Twitter is toxic, or that Reddit is toxic. But I am quite prepared to say that my relationship (such as it is) with Twitter and Reddit is toxic to me.

And that is quite enough. So, here goes. No tweets, no reading twitter, no checking various automated searches (like “JavaScript Allonge”), nada. Same for Reddit. /r/programming and /r/javascript, I <3 the people and discourse there greatly. I value the existance of the people who make those places great.

But alas… It is as if I had a friend living in a country that is racist, or dangerous for women, or run by a dystopian oligarchy. I might like my friend very much, but I’m not going to visit them until their environment changes.

My break starts at the stroke of midnight, tonight. I will revisit my feelings on Monday, September 22nd.

Until then… Be Ever Wonderful.