Why do normal people struggle with Twitter?

Good summary at The Guardian of how confusing Twitter can be for many users.

I’ve noticed a few more of my real life friends coming back to Twitter and getting value out of it lately. Some of them participate in weekly Twitter chats in their professional communities (mostly education), and others are heavily involved in television fandoms. Many people don’t know that such groups/activities exist, however, so hopefully Twitter can find some ways to make that onboarding process easier so new users can find relevant content more quickly.

One quote that stuck out to me from the article was that after surveying “dozens” of Twitter users, the Guardian found that “[s]ome wanted more attention for their 140-character missives. Some dreaded it.”

I tend to feel an odd mixture of hopefulness and dread when I post on Twitter. I’m hopeful that I’ll make some connections with people, that I’ll come off as genuine and human, and that others will be encouraged by my game developing journey. I dread that something I say will be controversial enough to attract a mob.

Going back to what I said about Slack and Twitter in my previous post: I would guess that many of the people who have stepped away from Twitter dealt with the same dilemma, and decided that the risks outweighed the benefits. Why sacrifice happiness and experience increased anxiety and stress when Slack offers a perfectly fun and safe space to interact with your friends? I don’t blame them at all.

I utterly failed to make this point in my last post, but if all of the kind, thoughtful, reasonable people are spending less time on Twitter (for perfectly valid reasons), it makes Twitter a sad place for everyone, not just me. It also lessens the quality of public discussion. And that’s Twitter’s problem to solve, ultimately, not the people who left.

I suppose it is selfish to wish people would come back to Twitter. And I am perfectly willing to try to find community elsewhere…the question is, where? I have a Slack account, but I’m never going to be a part of the “in crowd” and that’s totally fine. I haven’t been able to find much of an iOS developer community on Facebook.

So I don’t know. I’ll keep poking around. Maybe Peach is where it’s at. ;)