Director Joss Whedon decided to delete his Twitter account, but the reasons behind it may surprise you a little and make you think about how social media can be good and bad for the entertainment business.

Anyone associated with movies wants to have a social media presence these days. It’s hard — but not impossible — to find an actor who does not use at least Twitter to put his name out there and engage with fans and colleagues.

Avengers: Age of Ultron director Joss Whedon was one such person, until recently. But why would he leave Twitter at the height of popularity for his latest blockbuster?

The talk was that Whedon was fed up with all the criticism concerning his portrayal of the Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) in the sequel. However, Whedon calls the assertion “horsesh**” in an interview with BuzzFeed.

“I saw a lot of people say, ‘Well, the social justice warriors destroyed one of their own!’ It’s like, Nope. That didn’t happen, believe me, I have been attacked by militant feminists since I got on Twitter. That’s something I’m used to. Every breed of feminism is attacking every other breed, and every subsection of liberalism is always busy attacking another subsection of liberalism, because god forbid they should all band together and actually fight for the cause.”

Joss Whedon apparently had enough of social media and trying to tell a story in 140 characters or less and will instead use his time focusing on what’s really important to him. In other words Twitter was distracting him from doing his job.

“I just thought, ‘Wait a minute, if I’m going to start writing again, I have to go to the quiet place…and this is the least quiet place I’ve ever been in my life. It’s like taking the bar exam at Coachella. It’s like, Um, I really need to concentrate on this! Guys! Can you all just…I have to..It’s super important for my law!”

“Twitter is an addictive little thing, and if it’s there, I gotta check it. When you keep doing something after it stops giving you pleasure, that’s kind of rock bottom for an addict. I just had a little moment of clarity where I’m like, You know what? If I want to get stuff done, I need to not constantly hit this thing for a news item or a joke or some praise, and then be suddenly sad when there’s hate and then hate and then hate.”

So unfortunately, fans — and antagonists — of Joss Whedon will no longer have the opportunity to harass him on Twitter. Social media has lost a big name. Are you addicted to Twitter?

[Image via Marvel]