Heyaa
Remember the newsletter where I asked you to stop trying to find your passion? James Clear echoed a similar thought recently, and I feel Iâm following the right path, perhaps.
In his newsletter, James shared:
Passion is a feeling that follows action. It tends to be created or discovered, not predicted or planned. You don't find your passion. It finds you as you get in the mix and try things.
What you know me as today, as a (good?) writer, wouldnât have been if I didn't try a mix of 100 different things. Freelance writing isnât my first try at making money. But more on that some other day.
Today, I want to share about a rather underrated platform that played a significant role in my writing⊠Twitter!
Yes, Twitter.
Not the Twitter you see today. But the Twitter that existed 10 years ago⊠with 140 characters limit and no threading capability.
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OK, back to my storyâŠ
I joined Twitter back in 2013.
I (somewhat) moved there from Facebook⊠to share my puns, jokes and unfiltered random thoughts. I wasn't comfortable sharing those with âfriends.â
On Twitter, I was alone. And I loved it. I guess there were one or two friends, but that was it. Except for them, no one knew me on Twitter.
And it was liberating. In the words of MirchiLaddoo: âTwitter gave me wings.â She recently shared how Twitter, for her, and I quote: âbecame a platform to meet like-minded people, sharing ideas and have fun-filled conversations with them.â (Source: Take a Break!)
I totally resonated with that. TWITTER GAVE ME WINGS. Yes, like Red Bull.
I tweeted over there. Raw. There was no one to judge me for my thoughts. Actually, I didnât allow any âknownâ person to follow me. I blocked them straightaway.
I wasnât the Abhijeet people knew on other platforms. And I didnât want to reveal this unfamiliar side (not yet). I was happy sharing random thoughts on Twitter.
But Twitter came with a caveat: A limit of 140 characters per tweet.
So, I had to work on my written thoughts⊠to stop them from wandering away. I had to put them out concisely without losing the meaning.
I will give credit to Twitter for that⊠for shaping my writing.
I guess it was that practice that helped keep my thoughts crisp; and my sentences short. Only a few of my sentences are long. Some sentences are only a word. Fragment. Not professional, I know.
I loved sharing teeny weeny thoughts. Blasts of them at times. One day, I remember, I tweeted 100+ in a day. It was addicting.
Not so much now.
Maybe because Twitter has become a marketing platform now. I do, too. I mean marketing. But I like pouring out random thoughts more. Not a lot of people (who I follow) do so. So, it has been kinda boring.
In the name of branding, everyoneâs a showoff. People canât afford to post anything that might offend their followers. Yes, even I am afraid.
I, too, became that showoff. And it wasnât me.
I wasnât liking this version of myself. This âprofessionalâ self. I wasnât able to be me. Maybe thatâs why Iâm not active a lot.
I love sharing my thoughts, discussing my achievements, and screaming my failures out loud. But I donât like being a polished version of myself. Every social media platform is making me so.
And until I find another platform where I can be me, I will stay behind the screen.
Threads, maybe? Nopes.
I tried it last week⊠for 2 hours. Then, uninstalled. Threads might look like a copy of Twitter. But itâs not Twitter.
Maybe Iâll wipe my Twitter profile clean someday and do a clean start.
But today is not the day. Today is not the day Iâm ready to socialize.
Bidding adieu.
Live long and prosper.
See you next week, with another story.