Why did Sam Harris leave Twitter?

Sam Harris decided to leave Twitter due to several reasons related to his mental well-being and the overall negative impact the platform had on his life. He mentioned having a love-hate relationship with Twitter, where despite engaging positively with many people and using the platform productively, the overall experience became more negative than positive. Harris found himself increasingly exposed to toxic and misleading behavior, which distorted his view of humanity and caused unnecessary stress and conflicts in his personal and professional life 1 2 3. He also noted that the continuous need to respond on Twitter was taking up significant mental bandwidth, disrupting his daily life, and being an addictive behavior he recognized as unhealthy, similar to what he observed with Elon Musk's use of the platform 4 5.

Sam emphasized that deleting his Twitter account was like performing a "suicide of that self," marking an end to a troublesome extension of his identity that only caused complications 5. He also credited Cal Newport's ideas about deep work and minimizing distractions as influential in his decision to enhance his focus and productivity by eliminating disruptive elements like Twitter from his life 6.