Last week I laughingly linked to this post from last year wherein I asked myself, what on earth would I want to do with Twitter?  I had ignored Dean Esmay‘s invitation to join Twitter, though a little later a mutual friend convinced me to give it a try.  As I explain in this post from yesterday, I didn’t even really do anything with it until about six weeks ago, when I finally forced the issue on that friend’s urging as a way to increase traffic here.

I got the hang of it (update:  linked to old profile, now deleted, showing massive teeming following — RDC).

In almost no time I had attracted over 500  “followers.”  And, counting for “quality,” I now have at the time of this writing a score on Twitter Grader — one of several metrics, mind you, not of all of which would show as high a score — of 98.8 out of 100.  By their scale, as of this minute I am was ranked 8,965 in the galaxy out of over 850,000 users.  And that’s with being resolutely refused mutuality of followship by James Lileks.

With this, together with my mega-special Facebook page, I revealed myself to be, with my natural glibness, broad education and technological facility — yes, and of course that famous characteristic modesty —  a true social networking genius.  And blog traffic, as well as links and mutual blogroll relationships, did increase.  I even got a couple of direct inquiries for legal services!

Today I deactivated my Facebook account.

And I’m doing the same with Twitter.  Now, because Twitter is a little more personal and dynamic, I am going to take a couple of days before unplugging that… say some goodbyes to all that, at least goodbye to tweeting.  We can read each other in the funny papers.

But this has taken over my life.  The fact is, I’m too good at social networking for my own good.  If eating all the candy you want means that you eat candy three meals a day, you have to be someone who doesn’t eat candy at all, no matter how much energy it gives you.

I have real things to do, and not nearly as much time to talk about doing them as I’m spending.  And I don’t necessarily have any good reason for talking about those things, and other things, too, with some of the people with whom I’ve been talking.

I have a couple of good blogs, guest slots and privileges on some others, a lot of great clients, fine partners, countless friends, and priceless family members to live with.  Not virtually, really.

That’s what I’m doing.

UPDATE:  I reestablished my Twitter account as a place holder immediately after “quitting” Twitter, and merely used it as a feed for blog posts.  I hardly expected anyone to follow me there, though a few have.  I am only slowly beginning to, sparingly, utter any personal tweets, and I have structured my social cloud so as not become the sort of “social scene” it had for me last winter. It’s now social, but in the business social sense.

I also reopened my Facebook account but use it in a far more focused than I was doing last year.  It’s something that exists in my life now — as opposed to being my life!