Sometimes We Can Have Nice Things (Even on Twitter!)

By Dan Hamamura | Social Media | July 29, 2017 |

By Dan Hamamura | Social Media | July 29, 2017 |

I mostly don’t like Twitter. I don’t like how much time and attention I devote to it, or how it has substituted for in-person interaction with a certain subset of my friends. And that’s before taking into account the day-to-day and minute-to-minute emotional abuse we subject ourselves to now, as we attempt to stay informed.

But it’s easy to forget: Twitter is a tool, and, like all tools, it’s possible to use in a positive way. And every once in a while, you do, in fact, see people using Twitter for good.

Authors Sam Sykes and Chuck Wendig are two such people.

It begins, as things often do, innocently enough.

hey what do you need

— Chuck Wendig (@ChuckWendig) July 28, 2017

I don't know if I told you but I recently became a camp counselor

— Sam Sykes (@SamSykesSwears) July 28, 2017

Just two friends, chatting about their summer. What a pleasant conv-

it was going super well but there's some kind of crazed serial killer roaming the grounds right now

— Sam Sykes (@SamSykesSwears) July 28, 2017

uh oh

you got any advice? they're all dead. like, almost everyone

— Sam Sykes (@SamSykesSwears) July 28, 2017

I honestly don’t want to go any further here, other than to say that Chuck did indeed have some advice for Sam, and the end result is a delightful story that should be read either in the original thread, or at Chuck’s website, where he storified the whole thing. It’s pure conversational play, the kind that can occur between two people who know and trust each other, the kind of interpersonal connection and buy-in that we normally only experience in person, and only once in a while. And thanks to these two, it’s all just right there, for us to read and enjoy.

Especially when you spend all day looking at Twitter.