had this for Monday, forgot to hit Pulbish - whoops

For many people, who do not live a significant portion of their lives on any form of social media (or they believe that they do not), the impending sale of Twitter feels like it makes no difference. And yet, one thing that particular network has been able to give insight to is that there is some thing of a “ community phone line“ that we, almost globally speaking, want to share.

One can argue that Instagram, WhatsApp, Twitter, and a few gaming services fulfill this type of designation as a multi generational, multi class type of community hub. And yet, in terms of connectivity and networking, there is always a change. 15 years ago there was no such thing as communities on Twitter, and just barely communities on places like Facebook. There was Black Planet, MySpace, Blogger, and such. There were communities wrapped into protocols such as AIM and ICQ. And the commonality amongst these (intentionally speaking to post 2000) Platforms was that they fostered a multi generational, multilingual, and largely reputational fueled community.

Many people have found themselves able to craft professional lives, social lives, and even address psychological dysfunction through these communities. Twitter, probably a little more loudly than some, has Found a way to cross international lines, and even language lines, to spark people to share aspects of themselves that which traditionally only be found inside of smaller niche communities. So if Twitter goes, the power of these connections will actually be tested. The ability or inability for current and upcoming connectivity to foster the same thing will also be on trial. And then there are regulations that will take place that may probably prevent centralized, protocols from stretching too far.

If you will, Twitter might have been just as much a social construct as much as it has been a grand experiment. And even with the theory that it may become a communications protocol for whatever Mr. Musk’s has planned. There is a sufficient enough argument to say that if it does go away in its current form, that it might be a good idea for no other platform to try and replace what it is. But rather, skate to where the puck is going and become a multi generational, multi class, And federated platform that lives not just on top of TCP/IP, but hopefully allows people to live beyond just those connections. If you will truly moving into an age where we’re not just partially connected… But we are spiritually, socially, and technologically, healthier because now this type of connectivity is more than something hastily patched together.