10 years, 10 lessons
Time is a constant yet unrequited protagonist on this blog. Quite similar to Mr. Samay in BR Chopra’s Mahabharat (1988). Anyway, I completed a decade on Twitter on 29th of December last year. Just feels like yesterday Varun introduced me to this website — this was before smartphones took over — where everything seemed blue-ish in colour. I liked the constriction and the challenge of 140 characters — this was much before the introduction of 280 characters — and used to post random lame stuff. More often than not, I used to share rhymes from my poetry — yes, I used to scribble regularly back then — and sometimes, quotes from movies and bumper stickers on the Internet. The concept of retweeting and liking wasn’t big back then. People were more innocent and we used to converse about everything under the sun.
I used to converse a lot.
Fast forward to the end of 2018.
And here we are with 10 observations-cum-lessons from spending nearly a third of a lifetime on something.
- Twitter is a great place for information. In fact, one of the fastest route to knowledge provided you are in sync with the right folks. If you are following ABC looking for PQR, you’ll XYZ. The most effective way to look at this law of flow is you decide the outcome, not the ones you follow. Get the finest lot on your timeline and you won’t spend a day feeling low scrolling on your phone.
- You can impress somebody but not everybody. Even those you can impress today won’t be repeating themselves tomorrow. Everything fades away on Twitter. What was cool once isn’t cool anymore. Last decade, we used to share food pics, music links and movie reccos a lot but you don’t see much of that anymore. So, to fight this change, be yourself as long as you are comfortable being yourself.
- They will tell you that Twitter has become a political shithole of a city. In reality, it’s merely a reflection of our times. People didn’t suddenly crawl out of their holes and created an account for themselves. They were always there with their depraved opinions, maybe on YouTube or Facebook. Now, they are on Twitter and doing what the rest of us are doing: trying to be heard or seen or both.
- I follow 4 accounts of people who passed away over the last 10 years. These are people I’ve shared laughter with. And their demise is a weird reminder that when we pass away, our tweets are there for others to see. Just like they are when we are alive. Also, feel free to delete old tweets you don’t want to read anymore as it was your final call to post them so it should be your final call to get rid of them as well.
- Public conversation isn’t for anyone. In 2010, I decided to stop conversing on the timeline and it’s been over 8 years since I’ve had an online public chat on Twitter. This move helped me save time while I continued to interact privately on DMs. Those who say it’s rude to not reply to tweets often overlook the fact that they themselves don’t reply to everyone as followers-following ratio matters to them. Moreover, no offence to those who go on and on on the timeline but one-on-one works better for me. I tend to have meaningful conversations there.
- There is a huge difference between tweeps and their tweets. They are not the same. I’ve met some folks from Twitter and noticed that the persona they carry on the timeline isn’t necessarily the personality they embody in their offline existence. And that, to me, is the beauty of this platform. If Shakespeare was correct and this world’s indeed a stage, then everybody enacts different characters — online or offline — and it’s our expectations that could be at fault here, not our performances.
- My parents wondered in 2009 what was I doing furiously typing on the black keyboard. My parents in 2019 would still wonder what am I doing with my phone. To my dad, ‘Tooter’ remains out of grasp. And I prefer it this way, to be frank.
- Learn to detach. The app isn’t going anywhere and whenever you feel overwhelmed by the information and emotions, you should log out. The sooner you do, the safer.
- My prime motive to be present on Twitter is humour. Which is the main reason why I haven’t blocked anybody yet. Nothing is serious enough here. Besides, blocking a person is giving more importance than required. You should find your motive, too, because knowing is the first step toward improving the time you spend.
- Lastly, don’t count the number of years you’ve spent on a platform that unites the unlikeliest of individuals like Barack Obama, Ed Snowden, Dalai Lama and El Chapo. And where 95% of the users have less than 100 followers — effectively proving that we are here to enjoy our voyeurism.
