Appreciating Twitter

Twitter is so thrilling. It’s a crazy world of a billion impassioned streams of consciousness. It’s an ultra-navigable layer on top of the real world. It makes it thrillingly easy to jump between starkly different world views and marvel at how differently other people think, or just how wrong they are. It helps see how others think, and helps each individual better explore their own beliefs. Find their own tribes. Get excited about ideas.

It’s really a wonder to have one place with hundreds of millions of people developing and sharing their most interesting, concise thoughts. It’s easy, of course, to be cynical about Twitter. But it is what you make of it.

If you are really excited about some niche thing that nobody you know in real life cares much about, Twitter is where you can find your people. Where you can reliably find inspiration. And where you can develop your own ideas. Push out partly formed thoughts and get feedback and iterate. The barrier to entry is lower than with other kinds of writing, like blogging.

At its best, Twitter provides a space where people riff on ideas and end up with something no one person would have come up with in isolation. It is, in a way, a tool for thought. It’s an arena for ideas. And the deep, meaningful connections people make on Twitter are a byproduct, though very valuable in themselves. It’s a simple tool that opens up a world of ideas.