“If you were in your sitting room and you discovered a portal to all of the bullshit in the world, where opening it would just let it all pour into your room? Yeah. You wouldn't open that,” muses Hazel Hayes, on the questionable appeal of Twitter.
It’s a sentiment that will ring true for many - even if most of us haven’t had to endure a highly-public, newsworthy row with Piers Morgan about the urgent need for mental health care to help us reach that conclusion.
“I don't have the emotional energy now to have spats with people who simply will never learn, or want to do or be better,” Hayes says. “There was too much information. I was being bombarded by it. I could feel my brain slipping a bit, and anxiety creeping in, so I deleted the app off my phone. It's been nearly two months now and I do not miss it at all.”
So far, so sensible. Until you consider that Hayes’ career has been built on social media. Distancing herself from Twitter means distancing herself from 224.7 thousand avid followers. She’s also got a quarter of a million over on YouTube, her original online home where she’s racked up more than 15 million views. Then there are the further 179 thousand people watching her life over on Instagram. With an audience like that, withdrawing begins to seem like a risky strategy. But then, after an hour in Hazel Hayes’ company, I’m pretty convinced she’s not a woman who shies away from risk…
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