I recently conducted a bold social experiment using myself as a guinea pig.

Basically, I wanted to see if, for a full 48-hour period, I could quit Twitter cold-turkey.

Of course, going into this experiment I knew it wouldn't be easy, since the first thing I do every morning is reach, bleary-eyed, for my phone to see what's going on in the land of Twitter.

This way I can start off my day knowing exactly what issue or event should be putting me into a state of sanctimonious moral outrage.

So, how did it work out, you ask?  Did I manage to avoid Twitter?

Nope.

Despite my best efforts, I still felt compelled every once in a while to sneak a peek at my feed.

However, I did manage to cut down my Twitter usage by approximately 75 percent which made me pretty pleased.

My new goal is to reduce my time on Twitter even more.

So, why am I determined to wean myself away from one of the world's most popular social media platforms?

Lots of reasons.

For one thing, the recent purge, which saw President Donald Trump and thousands of others permanently banned from Twitter, was to my mind a chilling precedent.

Yes, I know you can make solid arguments for the bans, and yes, as a private company Twitter can censor whomever it wants, but to my mind this ruthless culling was a stark reminder as to how our Big Tech Overlords can arbitrarily suppress any opinions they don't happen to like.

Indeed, I'm coming to believe that Twitter is morphing from a site designed to enable an exchange of ideas to one which has the aim of enforcing a strict ideological conformity.

Simply put, if you're not on Twitter to spout trendy left-wing talking points, you're in danger of being banned.

Such a service is really of no interest to me.

When it comes to communication, I happen to like the notion that the Internet should provide, as much as possible, a free marketplace of ideas, an arena where viewpoints can clash and where people can learn; if I wanted to get continually bombarded with progressive propaganda, I'd just watch the CBC.

And it's not just the purges or the censorship that have soured me on Twitter.

Indeed, my most serious problem with Twitter is that whenever I venture onto this social media platform, I expose myself to an ongoing digital parade of hatred and rancor.

Basically, too many people on Twitter don't debate, they despise.

As a matter of fact, I'm sad to report that even intelligent and educated people on Twitter will often resort to juvenile name calling, sarcasm and snark.

It's hardly an edifying spectacle, and one which actually stains my soul and assaults my delicate psyche.

What's worse is that spending too much time on Twitter often leads to what political scientists call, "affective polarization," a fancy way of saying it causes people to hate their political and ideological opponents with an ever-increasing intensity.

Basically Twitter (along with other platforms such as Facebook) causes us to believe our opponents are not just wrong on the issues but also morally evil.

In other words, being on Twitter is like walking through a room where the walls are covered with funhouse mirrors, all you get is a distorted, frightening and grotesque version of reality.

It's this ever-increasing intensity of hatred, relentlessly fueled on Twitter which, I think, can sometimes lead to violence.

So yeah, Twitter is a monopolistic toxic cesspool and I, for one, don't want to hate anybody.

In fact, I'd say that in the interest of cooling down emotions, it'd probably be a good idea for everyone on the planet to stay off of Twitter, at least for a while.

Of course, I realize that will never happen.

For better or for worse, social media platforms are here to stay.

For instance, despite my misgivings, I will continue to use Twitter to tweet out my columns or to check up on the views of people I admire.  (Some individuals on the site actually do put forward interesting ideas.)

But I will try to use it way less.

My hope is, this'll make me a healthier, happier person,

Feel free to re-tweet this column.