Five Years Gone

Yesterday was my fifth anniversary on Twitter, though it feels like it was just the day before yesterday that I joined the social-media universe.

I joined Twitter before I had a Facebook account. And while I had been blogging since March of  2008, that old blog was like my Facebook outlet, where I would let family and friends know about what my wife, kids, and I were up to. With Twitter, I acquired new followers, folks who I didn't know, but many whom would become good friends.

Twitter allowed me to get the message out about my novel from when I was still writing it. Because of Twitter, and my ever-growing social thumb print, I started The Brown Knowser. And while I don't have thousands of followers, I have great followers, and this blog brings me thousands of visitors each week.

So, thank you.

I suppose I have my wife to thank: it's because of her that I started a Twitter account in the first place. She was going away for two weeks, to Taipei, and she thought that this medium would be the fastest way for us to communicate. I argued that e-mail was fast enough, and that we would always want to chat through Skype, anyway. My wife countered that Twitter was available on her computer and her smartphone, and that it was easier to use on a small screen. Reluctantly, I signed up.

My wife and I sent two or three tweets to each other, and then her use of Twitter almost stopped entirely. It wasn't that she was having any trouble in Taiwan or was experiencing technical difficulties, but rather she grew bored of the medium and moved back to e-mail and  texting.

So, the tool that I didn't want, was forced to take, was abandoned by the person who made me take it.

That was okay. While I was getting used to the social-media app, I started following a lot of news outlets and some of my favourite CBC reporters and weather specialists, and I found myself reading the feed like a fast-paced novel. I was hooked.

So, in celebration of my fifth anniversary on Twitter, I want to thank the wonderful people who follow me, to the strangers who are now friends, and to my wife, who got me addicted.

Even though there are some days when she regrets that decision.