There’s been so much talk around social media companies taking over and directing digital exposure after Donald Trump was suspended from major platforms following his involvement in what happened at the Capitol on January 6th. Whether you support or oppose that decision, I want to talk about how special Twitter was when the network was brand new — there’s something to be said about how some of the richest people and corporations can just kick us off if they don’t like what we say, though I’d argue we already know not to yell “bomb” in an airport or “fire” in a crowded theater.
I knew a guy from Chicago who was great with computers. We spent a lot of time on Skype, and he followed all the latest tech and hacker news — always ahead of the curve. In April or May of 2008, he told me about a microblogging service that was starting to catch on: Twitter. I signed up for my account that May but didn’t really start using it until desktop apps became accessible in early 2009. When I did start using it more, the site was basic and minimal — I don’t even remember trending topics being on the main page. Tweets maxed out at 140 characters, including everything, and there weren’t many options to shorten links, so that ate into your space too. I always wondered why 140 was the number — turns out it was influenced by the character limit on early cell phones. Android still works that way in some respects today.
Something changed on June 25th, 2009. Michael Jackson was in the hospital, and passed away from what would later be ruled a homicide involving an acute propofol and benzodiazepine overdose. I remember the news breaking on Twitter before any news station picked it up — that was the real breakthrough moment for me. People realized they could get news faster on this network than anywhere else. Farrah Fawcett passed the same day, and three days later Billy Mays, the OxiClean pitchman, passed in his sleep. Twitter was on top of every one of those stories before traditional media caught up.
By high school, Twitter had become the thing — especially senior year. Get-togethers were scheduled over it, funny takes got chatted about, pictures and videos got exchanged. There was even a standalone “Twitter Video” app for a while. Celebrities were all over the platform, and in 2009 the first celebrity to follow me was New York/New Jersey’s own Kat DeLuna. Back then, celebrities actually tweeted people back. That newness was something to appreciate — everyone was figuring it out together, and it was easy to make friends in a way that doesn’t feel as common on social media now. I still follow people I met on Twitter through conversations about shows like NBC’s The Voice.
I understand platforms have to evolve, and with more information circulating, more characters were probably needed. But I’ll always have a soft spot for Vine — the six-second video clip app that’s been gone since January 2017. There was something special about being forced to be funny, or to promote something effectively, or to edit a story down to its essential pieces, all in six seconds. I feel the same way about old Twitter, before the character limit doubled: watching how creative people got within a tight constraint made everyone a little better at getting their point across.
If you’ve been on the platform a while, I’d love to hear your story. How long have you been on Twitter? Do you run multiple accounts? What are some of your best moments on there? I’ve had some incredible exchanges — brands responding, celebrities liking and retweeting — and it’s thanks to Twitter that I landed radio interviews with people like Australian EDM producer tyDi and pop artist Neon Hitch. If you’ve got stories like that, I want to hear them.
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