Wednesday, September 08, 2021

Late Adopter, Later Aficionado

My Twitter profile says that I joined in December of 2007, nine months after what Wikipedia characterizes as "the tipping point for Twitter's popularity" -- the 2007 South by Southwest Interactive conference. Even at that point, I confess that I expected it to be a flash in the pan and gone Real Soon Now.

Since then, I've mostly used it as a way to flog my blog posts and Garrison Center columns, run an automated real-time edition of Rational Review News Digest on the platform, etc. To start/participate in extended conversations, I've tended to stick with Facebook.

I'm not sure what triggered the recent change, but lately I'm making time at least once a day to dip into the Twitter river, find something interesting that's not necessarily from my "friends I know and follow closely anyway" circle, and maybe get in a conversation about it. And hey, it turns out to be pretty fun.

I have a feeling that the discipline imposed by the length constraint may also improve my op-ed writing chops, which would be a nice fringe benefit.

On the other hand, I may get tired of it and go back to paying little attention. I guess we'll see.

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