CM Punk didn’t leave Twitter because somebody roasted his wrestling, criticized one of his matches or took a shot at his personality. He walked away after seeing a stranger celebrate one of the most painful injuries of his career.
While speaking with ESPN New York, the WWE Champion was asked how he managed to ditch Twitter when wrestlers, broadcasters and entertainers are constantly told they need the platform to promote themselves. Punk said the site no longer feels like a place filled with genuine conversations between real people.
Instead, Punk believes much of the platform has become an endless loop of fake accounts, recycled opinions and people piling onto whatever topic the algorithm throws in front of them.
“I don’t think a lot of them are real people anymore. I honestly think it’s bot farms, and they just attach onto whatever the hell an algorithm is. They repeat and regurgitate what other people are saying.”
Punk didn’t hold back when describing what Twitter eventually became for him. The Second City Saint said the constant negativity made the entire platform feel toxic and unhealthy.
“It winds up just being this cesspool of negativity. It’s pretty wild, and it’s pretty unhealthy.”
The breaking point came after Punk shattered his foot. While dealing with the injury, he stumbled across a post from somebody who was actually happy that he had gotten hurt. That comment didn’t send Punk into a rage or leave him crushed. Instead, it made him realize that the only reason the stranger’s garbage entered his life was because he had opened Twitter and allowed it onto his screen. Punk said the post didn’t hurt his feelings. It simply made him question why he was voluntarily exposing himself to comments that he never would have encountered in the real world.
“The thing that got me to abandon Twitter was when I shattered my foot. I saw somebody say they were happy about it.”
“It didn’t hurt my feelings. I just went, ‘Oh, this is not a comment that I would have seen if I didn’t look at Twitter, so I’m just going to stop looking at this.’”
That was apparently all Punk needed. Rather than arguing with the person, firing off a response or spending hours scrolling through more reactions, he removed himself from the situation entirely.
Punk’s relationship with social media has always been complicated. His name can dominate wrestling conversations even when he hasn’t posted anything, and every absence, injury, promo or championship match quickly turns into a war between fans online. Leaving Twitter didn’t stop people from talking about him. It simply stopped Punk from reading every ugly comment thrown in his direction.
Punk still uses Instagram, but his experience there sounds much different. He spends his time looking up coffee shops and gyms, researching cities on WWE’s schedule and sending friends videos of dogs, seals, food and other random animals instead of arguing with anonymous accounts. For Punk, the decision came down to protecting his own peace.
Do you think CM Punk made the right call by abandoning Twitter, or should public figures accept that ugly comments come with being online? Let us know what you think and leave your feedback in the comments.
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