Vitalik left the X app but not X, and lost interest in the daily fight

Quitting the interface, not the platform

In his essay, Vitalik Buterin argues that physical minimalism is worthwhile but no longer the main challenge; digital minimalism means making each use of technology a deliberate choice rather than a default habit. His experiment was to leave the X interface but not the platform. He did most of his posting through Firefly, a client that shows X, Bluesky, Farcaster and Lens in one feed and cross-posts to all four, which he says he has done for much of 2025.

His diagnosis is blunt. X is engaging but neither informative nor pleasant, and toxicity peaked around late 2024 and early 2025. He describes a loop: tap an extreme post out of morbid curiosity, tell the recommender you're interested, get more of it. He suspects his setup's main benefit is the absence of the algorithmic feed. Back on X, he found he barely cared about the day's culture-war debate.

The business-model objection

"Twitter gets money from ads. They can sell more ads for more money when they can demonstrate eyeballs and eyeball time. Therefore, they're incentivized to keep your eyeballs on the app for as long as possible. If that means putting car accidents in front of you, that's what it'll do!" — a commenter based in Taipei

He does not buy the essay's suggestion that algorithm improvements calmed the feed, and says he tried Mastodon and Bluesky, where he found little real conversation.

Going all the way

One commenter described a decade of deletion: airplane mode first, then apps, until his phone was boring enough to cancel the cell subscription eight years ago. He has carried no phone since, pays in cash, and says he has "never been happier or more productive."

Another is closer to the essay's spirit. A former heavy Twitter user deleted the account cold turkey when it changed owners, and for Instagram uses iPhone Screen Time limited to 20 minutes a day, with the passcode set by someone else.

Minimalism as a luxury

"minimalism, privacy, security, these are all mostly a pursuit of luxury." — a commenter who has written about the topic

He argues that tech rarely produces a truly distinguishing luxury good, and lists the ones that did, from the iPhone to early Facebook and blue-check Twitter.