Should I Stay or Should I Go?

To Tweet or not to Tweet...That is the Question

Sigh…I have grown to love Twitter: strange, unruly child that it is. I love the communities I found there: artists, writers, kid lit, panda lovers, and cat videos bring me joy and an endless TBR list.

It has brought me news, introduced me to newsletters here and encouraged me to create my own. Election news, Covid news, community when we dared not step outside our apartments, if we had that privilege, when an unknown plague scratched at the windows in hopes of claiming another life.

Like most people, I have a love/hate relationship with the site. Learning to sort out truth from lies is not always easy. Sometimes it hits you over the head with a 2”x4”.

Looking back over my history, I saw that I joined in 2011, but I didn’t really get active (or see the point of it) until the government shutdown by the Republican Congress in the fall of 2013.

A very important thing had happened in the summer of 2013, just a few months before the shutdown.

Of course, I am referring to the birth of Bao Bao (aka Princess Pinky) at the Smithsonian National Zoo in Washington DC. This much longed for, anticipated, celebrated event united panda cam aficionados around the world. I’m pretty sure we broke the internet.

But then…was it the Tea Party Caucus? Whatebber. All I know it was a bunch of GOP yahoos that thought it would be a good idea to put 10’s of 1,000’s of people out of work, impact the income of millions more, just so they could throw a hissy fit over something. But more that that, it shut down the panda cams!!!!

Naturally panda fans from all over the world took to Twitter to protest this injustice.

I mark my coming into my full Twitterhood during this difficult time. I met some of my closest panda family friends during this time, many of whom I am still Twitter friends with as well as real life in person friends with. Twitter was a refuge and a place to have fun and share pictures of pandas and sometimes just be silly with other people. I’ve found writers who give me a more complete picture of politics and the lives of people with less privilege than I have grown up with.

Without Twitter I would not have learned of and participated in the Women’s March of January 21st in 2017. Talk about days that will live in infamy.

I know my experience of Twitter is but a microscopic corner of it. Twitter has exposed wrongdoing, called out injustices, provided communication for people around the world trying to be allowed to live and thrive under autocratic governments. But it has also allowed misinformation, cruelty, racism, and countless other ~isms to run rampant.

And now comes El*n M*sk. He comes like a wrecking ball swinging wildly taking down the good and somehow leaving the bad. I’m tempted to stay until the bitter end. I don’t know if I can do that. But I will miss the random moments of joy and creativity that being confined to 280 characters has brought me. I’ll miss #Caturday and #HaikuSaturday. I’ll miss #LimerickSunday and #PandaImprov.

I’ve already found some of you on the other socials. I’m sure over time I’ll find more. Hell, maybe I will spend less time doom scrolling on my phone and get some actual work done. Stranger things have happened. Until then, consider this alternative to Twitter:

Thanks for taking a few minutes to read my ravings. I feel strongly that everything I share here is available to all Substack readers whether they have a paid or free subscription. But, if you can afford it and think what I do here has value to you, I welcome paid subscriptions. Thanks again for reading.
For more panda satire, you can find me at The Panda Chronicles.