Zombies, balloons and the NHS have more in common that you might think

Edited: May 2020

I wrote this post a long, long time ago. At the time, it did accurately reflect my feelings about Twitter, and various other people who were using it as a platform.

A lot has changed since then. Twitter is a very different place than it once was, and there are certain individuals in particular who use it in ways I feel very uncomfortable about, and certainly would never condone. 

In fact, at the start of this year, I would have told you that this post was describing a version of Twitter which was completely unrecognisable to me.  It definitely wasn't a place I could say I really, really loved. It was no longer even a place I even liked, very much, and was somewhere I was starting to actively avoid.

And then the Covid-19 pandemic hit.  If there are any silver linings to be found in the current situation - and I do think it's important to seek those out - one of them is that Twitter has, in very broad terms, become a lot  less toxic again. I don't think we're anywhere near that warm, lovely heyday from over a decade ago, but over the last few months I have started to witness, and become directly involved in, the types of conversations I used to know and love - full of wit, wisdom, joy, generosity, kindness, and sometimes just downright silliness.  It has been really, really, nice. 

So I do stand by most of what I wrote in this post. But not all of it. In particular, the specific Twitter account I mention in the final paragraph  is being used in a very different way now from how it once was, and is an account I not only no longer follow but have also muted. Of all of the changes I've seen on Twitter in the last decade, I think this is the one I find most baffling, and which I am the saddest about. And while I know it's unlikely that anyone will read, or care about, how I felt about this over a decade ago - even if they do stumble across this post - I'd still like to distance myself from the sentiments expressed in that  final paragraph.


I discovered the other day, through means which will eventually become clear, that this blog has an actual, proper, someone-who-isn't-me reader.  (Hello Paul, if you are still here.)  I was quite excited.

The means-which-will-soon-become-clear involved the wonderful world of Twitter.  "Wonderful world of" might sound a bit glib, but it isn't meant to. I genuinely do really, really love Twitter.  A lot.  Partly I love the fact that it has given clever, creative people a new platfom to play with, and as a result they've made lots of silly things.  (I imagine (and really, really, hope) there are more of these I have yet to discover.  The possibilities are endless.)

Also, hashtag games are fun.  And through people I follow I've picked up some brilliant recomendations for films, and music, and blogs, and books, and articles, and restaurants and iPhone apps, and......well, you get my point. I follow some very funny people, and I've laughed out loud at their tweets and RTs. I've seen behind the scenes of some of my favourite TV shows. I've found some great writing advice.  I've heard about work opportunities and bought my current favourite t-shirt. (If you clicked, that's not my actual t-shirt by the way.  There's a different design each day and for all I know the one you have just looked at could have been horrible.  The one I bought was *much* cooler (probably)).

Becuase there are, unbelievably, more important things in the world than the contents of my wardrobe, I'm also really glad that stuff like the  #WeLoveTheNHS campaign and, to a lesser extent, the Jan Moir/Stephen Gately backlash, happen on Twitter.  These, in my book, were both Very Good Things.  (For the most part, anway, in the case of JM/SG).

Basically, from what I've seen, Twitter is bursting at the seams with Very Good Things.  As a general rule, people who tweet seem to be kind, and witty, and wise, and warm, and helpful, and generous, and funny, and in posession of a fair amount of common sense. (What would an unfair amount of common sense be, I wonder?)

I know that I'm making a massive generalisation (always dangerous, making generalisations, absolutely always) and that there are some exceptions to this.  And yes, there have been some well documented and pretty unpleasant 'Twitter Wars', (I'm not linking to them here: what's the point?) and yes, sometimes people set up fake accounts claiming to be other people and the other people they are claiming to be don't like that very much (who can blame them?). 
I've noticed, though, that the people who do try and inject the occasional bit of nastiness tend to get shouted down pretty quickly. Usually, more politely than in some other online environments. (Once again, I know I'm generalising massively here. It's still always wrong to do so.  Are we sick of this joke yet? No? That's lucky.)

Maybe if I was a famous celebrity (I'm not) who had thousands of followers (I don't) and a constant stream of @replies (ditto) I'd come into contact with more of the ugly stuff than I do now.  I'd like to think though, that proportionally I wouldn't. There is very little chance I'll ever test out this theory. 

So for now, I'm very happy to keep believing that the Twitter world is, by and large, a shiny happy place, full of pretty decent people, where goodness and common sense rule the land. That's exactly my kind of town.

Mainly what I love about Twitter is this: I dip in daily, and in doing so have seen hundreds, if not thousands of tweets from people answering questions, giving advice, speaking words of encouragement, sharing jokes, offering sympathy, retweeting charity requests, and doing all sorts of other lovely, lovely things for no obvious reward. Often for people they don't know. Occasionally, for me.  I know this sort of stuff goes on in the real world too. But with Twitter you get to see a lot more of it in a much shorter space of time. It's like a shot of espresso to the soul. 

 I have been thinking about all of this ever since Monday, when a complete stranger not only offered me advice about a fairly mundane, domestic issue I was dealing with (broken toaster, since you ask) but then went on to say some really kind words in response to some of the things I have been blogging (more to the point, moaning) about lately.  Like I say, there are many Very Good Things to be found on Twitter.  My first actual, proper, someone-who-isn't-me reader is definitely one of them.

The NHS campaign, by the way, was masterminded by the brilliant Graham Linehan, whose tweets were also the source of a couple of of the recommendations mentioned earlier.  (See if you can spot which ones.  Or don't. It's up to you, really.).   I have him to thank for a lot of things, not the least of which is the ridiculous title of this post.