Twitter restored my faith in humanity
(First of all, if you are on Twitter, my handle is ade3. If you are on Twitter let me know so I can follow you.)
It is kind of silly to put the weight of the world on the shoulders of something as trivial as Twitter, but that’s what I am going to do. Unlike Facebook where you only interact with people you already know, your Twitter network is farther removed. You follow friends of friends and people you are interested in but don’t know personally. In general, I am not very trusting of people outside of my safe circle of friends. Part of this is just general insecurity, but the other part is from observations about how strangers interact with each other online. For example, take a look at Digg or YouTube and follow almost any comment thread. The comments are filled with hateful arrogant people that tear people apart for no reason at all. Read enough of the negative threads and you seriously start to question what has become of the human race.
So I guess that was part of my hesitation about joining Twitter. Why would I expose myself to people I don’t know and another source of negative comments? As a blogger my experience is that the most vocal group of commenter isn’t the people that liked your posts. The people who comment are the ones who don’t like your ideas. That negativity is a big part of the reason I stopped writing for Be A Design Group and its audience of designers.
Once I started tweeting and following people on Twitter I was surprised by the tone of everything people wrote. Tweets are generally honest and trusting. Conversations are helpful and sincere. People are grateful when you follow them and generous in their interactions. This was the opposite of what I was expecting. Maybe my perception of humanity was a little off.
Despite evidence to the contrary, people are generally good. Most people will help you when you are in need. Twitter proves how much each of us craves friendship and how quickly we can let our guard down and invite people see behind the walls we construct. That is good news for people like me who were beginning to wonder where all the good people had gone.
