We showed up, back in the day, because we loved books. We wanted to meet other people like us. To be where the conversation was happening. Call the place by whatever corporate name you like—in 2009 it was a café in cyberspace. A place where we got together and chatted and where distinctions in status didn’t seem to matter. I was a freelance journalist in my twenties, eking out a living in Jerusalem while I struggled to write my first novel. To make rent, I interviewed Israeli scientists about their discoveries, NGO founders about their coexistence projects, and visiting artists about their work.
When I wrote this back in 2017 I was dumb enough to think Twitter was the chaos that freedom of speech required. I was not to know that a Billionaire would buy and dismantle the platform.
It is the people who unfollowed you who showed the measure of their morality. But yes, twitter has altered a lot for the early days and that is bittersweet.
https://donalclancy.wordpress.com/2017/04/27/the-5th-estate/
When I wrote this back in 2017 I was dumb enough to think Twitter was the chaos that freedom of speech required. I was not to know that a Billionaire would buy and dismantle the platform.
I'm sorry you're losing something that was so important to your life, Ilana.
It is the people who unfollowed you who showed the measure of their morality. But yes, twitter has altered a lot for the early days and that is bittersweet.