To love Twitter is to understand Twitter. For most, it takes some time for the light to finally turn on. Each social platform is unique, and Twitter is one of the most confounding of them all. It’s radio’s red headed stepchild.
Apologies if you are a red-headed stepchild. But you get the idea. It’s easy to overlook Twitter because it’s so misunderstood.
Part of the Twitter challenge is human psychology.
Psychologists tell us that the lure of social media is instant gratification. On social platforms like Facebook and Instagram, friends and family validate posts with a click of a button to like it. When they do, the brain gets a pleasurable hit of dopamine. It feels good! If they leave a positive comment, it’s an even greater high.
This is the same feeling air personalities have when the phones light up with callers. It feels good.
But, Twitter is a different social media animal. Facebook and Instagram’s algorithms withhold and re-prioritize content. Twitter, however, is a linear, realtime experience. And those messages slip off the screen in just a few minutes. It’s not gone forever, but it might as well be.
