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Twitter—huh—what is it good for?

I’m not good with Twitter. It’s true. I try, but I’m terrible at it. How does is really work? What’s the meaning of it? I tweet, like, and repost, but I don’t “get it”. As a result, I’m always a little anxious when I hit that tweet button.

The social media I use the most is Facebook, where I have both a personal and an author page. Most of my posts on my personal page are about my horses and moments of Zen. So I try (most days) to post thirty seconds of something peaceful in my world because it feels like sharing something valuable.

With the lockdown, a lot of the video I take now is of the river in my backyard. From my favorite chair. It’s amazing how much the river changes because of the weather and season. Rain and sunshine changes the level, the speed, and the clarity. Just like a person, it has loud, raucous days and quiet, contemplative days depending on the mood and what’s happening upstream. I like to share the natural beauty because what’s calming to me might be calming to others.

Follow me on Facebook, click the link here.

I also post a lot of video of my horses (theme here, right?). My youngest horse, Radar, is a very funny boy. I post a lot of videos of him playing with a traffic cone because it’s hilarious. He’s an absolute hoot in his love affair with the “toy.” People write and tell me how much they enjoy seeing him play.

Jasper and Radar also play together, a beautiful sight. And surprising for those who aren’t familiar with equine behavior. It feels good to show them having fun.

Twitter always feels confusing. What should I tweet? A good quote? Or a title? Should I like or retweet? If I comment, should I retweet the comment? or the entire post. I always feel a vague sense of unease when I add a hashtag. I think . . . is this a stupid hashtag? Does this have a meaning I don’t know? Do I have enough? Too many? Most importantly, why am I craving hash brown potatoes right now?

The other social media I use on a regular basis is Instagram, because I enjoy the visuals. People post wonderful images and I understand how to comment. The fact that the only option is a heart also means I don’t have to struggle with the decision between like, love, care, sad, laugh, vomit . . .

Follow me on Instagram, click the link here.

I post photos of my river and my horses because, apparently, that’s what I’m most comfortable with on social media. But I don’t tweet those two things.

With Twitter I feel like I have to be “smarter” —more cognizant of the socio-political climate. I read a lot of news and listen to NPR and try to stay relatively current. But I never feel like I am connected enough with the Zeitgeist to tweet about it.

It feels vaguely dangerous and there’s enough danger in the real world for me to want to stay away from the virtual kind.

I hope I don’t get in trouble for writing this article.

Which leads me to the most important question.

So . . . should I tweet this?

Follow me on Twitter, click the link here.

Elena Taylor is the author of All We Buried, available now in print, e-book, and audio book format at all your favorite on-line retailers. And don’t forget many independent bookstores can order books for you and have them shipped to your home or for curbside pickup.

For more information on All We Buried, click on the link here to visit the home page.

Header photo by FirmBee on Pixabay. Click here for more information.