I Miss Twitter

 I mean, I really miss Twitter.  I'm on Facebook.  I've got a Photography Park account on Instagram and I've been on Flickr for years.  But none of them can hold a candle to Twitter for me.  Facebook just feels tired.  Like MySpace kind of tired.  Instagram feels stupid -- a photography-centric platform built around your phone and filters.  It's like picking up a pretty girl in a bar -- when you're dead drunk -- and then trying to have a conversation the next morning with bright sunshine streaming in the window.  It might work out but, chances are, you're both going to put it in the regret column.  And now they're busy destroying their brand with videos.  Flickr is fine.  For a photography site.  But Annie Leibovitz and Helmut Newton don't hang out on Flickr. (Okay, Helmut Newton doesn't hang around anywhere anymore, but you get my point.)

The greats do hang around on Twitter.  Or they did.  James Fallows is there.  Paul Krugman is there. People at the top of their heap (whatever that heap might be) were all gathered in the same place.  Say you're new to Alabama politics and you wanted to get the flick on how this State operates.  You could follow Josh Moon and Kyle Whitmire.   You not only got to read what their editors would publish, you got to read what was on their minds the rest of the time.

Which reminds me (it wouldn't be me if we didn't take a side trip now would it?)...

The Huntsville Times is going to stop printing their paper.  Along with just about every other newspaper in Alabama.  All digital.  I waited 20 years to be able to get a real newspaper and now they're going to take that away.  If I was still on Twitter I could write John Archibald and say, "What do I do now Ollie?".  And chances are, he'd answer.

That's the thing.  Without Twitter I've got a *lot* more time to read my digital subscription to the New York Times.  But I still don't see the stuff that I know I should be reading.  Twitter did that for me.  The people I followed and trusted always spotted the story I needed to read buried on page 17.  I don't know where to find page 17 online.

A newspaper makes you glance at every headline.  I even have to see the front page of the sports section as I throw it away.  That's half the paper in Alabama.  (And probably half of America.)  I wind up reading the pundits with which I disagree.  Strongly.  You don't get that experience anywhere except in a newspaper and a magazine. (Which reminds me, I read more of The Atlantic now too.)

But I still miss Twitter. I won't be Elon's product.  Whether you are or not is up to you.  Me?  I'll sit out here twiddling my thumbs.  Wondering what new ways I'll find to keep myself informed.  Who knows?  I might even use the time to write a little.  Because the truth is, I think that's what I miss most about Twitter.  The sharing.  You find some little, geeky tidbit roaming around the internet and who can you share it with?  Facebook?  Not likely.  Instagram?  If it's not run through a kaleidoscope filter first then, no.  Flickr?  Well, they're pretty much one-track minds.  I miss Twitter.

Don Brown
November 29, 2022