Jason Wilson says that he is quitting Twitter. Unlike me he has been a heavy user in Australia. I've been very careful in my use of Twitter, mostly using it to publicise my blog posts and photography uploads, to make comments during Question Time and to draw attention to, and share, certain events or articles that I find of interest. I'm conscious of the weak ties.

Wilson's reasons are different from the more common ones of protecting a certain kind of reading and writing and engagement that seems to be threatened by the attention overload and surface concerns of online skimming. He states that his reason has to do with online identity and the private/public distinctions:

The timing is no accident. The Grog'sgate fiasco is not a catalyst for this decision, but you might see it as the straw that broke the camel's back. It was the final confirmation for me that after three-and-a-half years using the service, the Summer of Love on Twitter has come to an end for this particular user...We've known since the start that life online does funny things with identity. Others might have it that it just makes certain things about contemporary human identity more obvious. Always on, real-time social media like Twitter don't always allow clear distinctions to be made between professional and private selves, and between the public and private spheres. No-one knows when you've clocked on, or clocked off.

Twitter encourages one (or me, at least) to vent immediate replies, which may not match, may even contradict a more disinterested evaluation. I'm not paid or qualified for minute-by-minute commentary, but for analysis and research. My personal opinions are my own, and they're quite distinct from, and often incompatible with any professional conclusions I might draw. But I need to make that clearer by not issuing professional and personal messages from the same space. Since I've ruled out separate accounts, the whole thing needs to come to a halt.