14 personal insights from 14 years on Twitter
In which he talks about what makes Twitter both terrific and terrible
NOTE: as I publish this post, public hearings have been televised in the United States over the Jan. 6, 2021 protest/attempted insurrection in the US Capitol on the day that the 2020 Electoral College votes were to be certified by Congress, making the elections of Biden/Harris as President and Vice-President official. This, and many related topics, have been swirling around Twitter and other social media platforms for many months. Twitter was also a favorite communication channel of former president Trump while he was in office. Twitter is not without its problems and baggage but I still strongly feel it can be used for positive purposes, hence why I am still comfortable publishing this post.
In 2007 I joined a social media website called Twitter. Twitter was the brainchild of Odeo, a company which was poised to launch a podcast listening app when Apple decided to own that market using iTunes. Odeo’s SMS app became the starting point for Twitter when their business model quickly became obsolete.
Twitter is one of the top social media platforms in the world (#10 according to a May 30, 2022 Search Engine Journal article, based on Number of monthly active users worldwide). Twitter was very popular with celebrities, politicians and other public figures in its heyday and many retain a presence there (people like Mark Hamill, George Takei, etc.)
In the past six years Twitter has gained notoriety for some less sunny reasons, such as the use of Twitter by former US President Trump, increased use of fake accounts and gaming of Twitter’s algorithms, and most recently the potential sale of Twitter to Elon Musk.
Although other platforms like Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and others have a larger userbase, Twitter still maintains a loyal core of users and even though parts of it can be nasty and chaotic you can still find lots of good, interesting people to follow and interact with. I certainly do!
Although I’ll be hitting my 15th Twitter anniversary in a few months, this list of insights and suggestions about Twitter is still valid and worth checking out. Many of these points apply to other social media sites. I’ve shared this list as a threaded post on Twitter before: 12K people and bots have at least glanced at it.
14 personal insights about Twitter:
1 – Twitter is the best of people; it is also the worst of people. Twitter is real; it is fake. Twitter is banal yet also profound. Twitter sucks when it’s not showing you wonderful things.
2 – One of the biggest opportunities of Twitter is the ability to engage with people you’d normally never get to contact. For instance, I was able to communicate (temporarily) with one of my music heroes via this site, which is priceless.
3 - Another Twitter opportunity I’ve used is to maintain contacts with some old friends who don’t live near me. It doesn't replace personal contact but it's helpful.
4 - I’ve also connected with quite a number of people who I’ve never met in person but who I am quite fond of, I hope you all know who you are. I appreciate the knowledge you’ve shared and the support you’ve shown me over the years. I’ve tried to do the same.
5 - I have learned many things and been exposed to ideas, images and sounds that it would have been much harder to find without Twitter. I can’t say it’s all been beneficial but I’d like to think, on the whole, it’s been more positive than negative.
6 – I’ve used Twitter for self-promotion before: for blogs, mainly, and for an ebook I published. Not really comfortable with that period but I definitely learned a lot about marketing.
7 – I make a strong effort to only retweet things that I think are valuable. Or humorous (therefore valuable). I’ve made enough mistakes in the past that I only want to provide signal boost for worthwhile things whilst avoiding the spread of disinformation.
8 – Speaking of which…many times a Tweet or retweet or link is not what it seems on the surface. People blindly post things sometimes without checking their facts. We all know this but… sometimes people are really bad about admitting that they’ve posted something untruthful.
9 – It’s pretty much pointless to have an argument on Twitter: the character limits and interface are significant hurdles plus almost anyone who will want to debate with you on Twitter is as unlikely to be swayed by a differing opinion or facts as you or I are. Ugh.
10 – I have learned more about people of different ethnic, cultural, sexual, political and religious opinions/beliefs/realities through this site than I have elsewhere. I’m grateful for this.
11 – It’s rare to see more than 20% of a person’s complete thoughts and personality on Twitter. This isn’t a bad thing but it can make it risky to judge people. And many of us are judgy, judgy and make snap decisions on initial impressions, just like in the real world.
12 – I wish I could take back anything I’ve written or done on this site that has caused other people pain. I’m pretty certain it’s happened a few times, unfortunately I can be thoughtless and self-centered at times. I’m sorry about that. Hopefully it’s been kept to a minimum.
13 – I feel like I’m at my best when I’m trying to make other people’s days better on Twitter. Although I may overdo it at times and sometimes my attempts at humor fall flat. See item 12.
14 - None of the above are rules, just one person’s opinion. Your experience may vary. Thank you for reading!
If you have any questions about Twitter or want to follow me there, I’m @markdykeman.
I like Twitter as a way to stay in touch with old friends and as a way to make stupid jokes. Their algorithms only seem to get worse so I’m looking to replace it with something less spammy/scummy
i enjoy your Twitter presence, Mark! you're a good one :) i'm glad to have embraced twitter more since moving back home - it's helped me meet some new pals IRL, which is hard at this age! Look for the good, always, it's there!