What It’s like to Use Twitter with No Metrics - For The Interested

What It’s like to Use Twitter with No Metrics

“You may tell yourself that you don’t care about the statistics, but tech companies know that when you are forced to see them, it is impossible not to care.”

The Twitter Demetricator is a Chrome browser extension that removes all metrics (followers, likes, retweets, etc.) from Twitter when you use it.

It’s an interesting experiment in how these metrics shape our usage (and enjoyment/anxiety) of social platforms.

David Zweig recently tried it out and shares his experience with it in this The New Yorker piece about what it’s like to use Twitter with no metrics.

Here’s one of his observations:

“My experience with the Demetricator vividly exemplifies what my research suggests — that the ultimate function of Twitter, like nearly all social-media platforms, is to make its users insecure, because insecurity compels engagement. And nothing turns up the dial on our insecurity like viewing our communications, and ourselves, as mere numbers.”