Twitter Sabbatical, the Rules

A few weeks ago I stumbled across a Twitter site with my ‘Member Since’ date. It was listed at November 5th, 2008. I quickly disregarded that piece of information. Earlier this week it came to mind that I should, on some level, recognize this date. I have decided the best way to commemorate my joining Twitter is to leave it for a week. So, between 12:00 AM Thursday October 29 and 11:59 PM Wednesday November 4 I will not tweet. Now there are some rules and loopholes being written into this agreement, as well as my rationale, all after the jump.

Rationale

The rationale for this is simple, there was a time before Twitter was in my life where I was connected to the people via facebook, email, phonecalls and the occasional split pitcher of Yuengling. I want to see over the next week how my interactions with people local and far away might change without the ease of Twitter in my life. While this will exclude a lot of my Twitter network whom I know only through this network, I am mainly interested in the people I knew before I became a tweep (no offense). I am also curious to see if I can capture the mindset pre-Twitter where I didn’t hear the random OH comments made by total strangers and how I would fare without sharing random facts about my life with the world at large.

Rules

1. I will not read any tweets for the duration of the week.
2. I will not tweet, retweet, or send direct messages for the duration of the week. The exception to this is a single daily tweet to let people know I still have a pulse. This is mainly for the benefit of my brother,@farkasb, so that if my family asks he can vouch for my still being alive. The content of these tweets may range from a ‘Still Here’ to a daily blog post (must be unrelated to Sabbatical) or an image. I will not post blog digests of all my Tweets or links to Tumblr or anything else along those lines
3. While I will not send direct messages, I will read any that I receive. After gauging the importance of the item, I will determine if Twitter, email, or another venue is the best method to respond.
4. The same is true for @replies. If someone reaches out to me in the form of an @reply, I will gauge its importance and will choose the appropriate method of response. These last two points, while contradictory to the theme of the Sabbatical will allow me to continue work on certain articles and such where my method of communication is primarily Twitter.
5. After completion, I will let you all know if there has been any enlightenment on my end or if I am just going to fall back into the ways or yore.
6. I will remove Twitter clients from my iPhone to prevent slipping up
8. I will remove Twitter clients from the start up processes of my computers to prevent slipping up

See you all on the other side,

David

Additions
10/29/2009 @ 1:06 PM: This translates to both my personal and my work Twitter profiles.
10/29/2009 @ 4:56 PM: There is some question as to if I can actually make it the whole week following the guidelines above. Leave your guess as to how long I’ll last in the comments, prize to the winner if I crack.