I love Twitter. I think it’s a great platform to keep well-informed. It’s also a window into the lives of people you care about, be they influential figures or just your peers. Conversely, in this day and age, it can be exhausting to maintain both your digital identity and personal life.

I follow a lot of people from the tech industry on Twitter, and lately, I’ve started to recognize a trend. Every so often, someone tweets an apology that they’ll be away from Twitter for a while. They’ll mention how they need to spend some time offline to work through stuff in their personal lives. I can’t help but wonder: Why are they apologizing?

I suppose they don’t want to let down the followers who are waiting with bated breath for their next post. With a relatively low follower count, perhaps I don’t “get it”. However, as far as I’m concerned, you don’t owe anyone your presence on a social network. While a commitment to producing good content on a regular basis is admirable, should it really trump your own wellbeing?

Usually, these users post again on the very next day. I’m not saying that’s a bad thing. Situations vary and I don’t know everyone’s personal circumstances, but what I do want to say is this:

Take care of yourselves, disconnect when you need to. Whether it’s for a day, a week, a month or more. It doesn’t matter. Social media will still be there when you return.