Nostalgia on Threads

A few weeks ago, I saw a post on LinkedIn from Nick Dawson. Nick was around Twitter health communities a lot when I first joined and it was great to read his post and take a wander down Twitter’s memory lane.

The feeling of nostalgia was strong. I don’t remember joining Twitter, but I do remember when I started actually using it to connect with others with diabetes from around the globe and how my diabetes world suddenly seemed infinitely bigger. No longer was I constrained to only people in my own networks, or even my own country. I was a global citizen in the diabetes online world. And it felt great.

Twitter became the cornerstone of a lot of my own advocacy and connections online. I never missed a weekly #DSMA tweet chat, expertly moderated by Cherise Shockley. The rapid fire hour of diabetes power often included hundreds of people. Dana Lewis’ #HCSM weekly chats brought together from different health communities, opening my eyes not only to different healthcare struggles, but also to solutions that helped me with my own diabetes. I used Twitter to find people who were doing incredible things that elevated the voice of people with diabetes. It was on Twitter that I followed along with the first Roche blogger summit that brought together US social media pioneers. I used those sorts of events to shape the Australian Social Media Summit that was held at the end of 2012, coordinated by Diabetes Victoria, bringing together Australian diabetes social media folk and Kerri Sparling from the US.

I was part of the team that started the weekly #OzDOC tweet chats in July 2012, working with Cherise to help get things started close to home. Around the same time, the first #GBGoc tweet chat happened and the first #dedoc° chat, #FRDoc and #ItDOC followed soon after. Back then, those chats were brilliant at highlighting local issues, but by and large, they were indeed global.

Twitter was the tool I used to take notes at conferences, live tweeting sessions to share with those not in the room, and then pulling the information together in briefing documents at works, and writing articles here and on other platforms. And Twitter was the channel where remarkable whole community events happened. Remember Kelly Kunik’s #IWishPeopleKnewThatDiabetes and those #DayOfDiabetes discussions? Or the groundbreaking and overwhelming community event that was #Simonpalooza? It was peer support on demand. There was no need to feel alone with your diabetes if you were on Twitter!

And then, I don’t know when, Twitter changed. Or I changed. Or the community changed. It became harder to find the people who had shone so brightly and made Twitter a place of support and community. I stuck close to old friends who never advertised the Twitter following count, because who cared? I learnt the difference between an advocate and an influencer. And I started to steer completely clear of parts of the community which was so alien to what it had been like when I first joined. #DSMA chats became less frequent because Twitter chats became kind of old hat. #OzDOC chats completely stopped because there hadn’t been a sustainability plan in place and there really wasn’t anyone to take over. Perhaps this was a reflection of how the community wanted to engage and what they…what we…wanted.

For me, most of the day-to-day reaching out I used Twitter for moved to being via private channels. And that worked fine and became the same lifeline that the public space Twitter had once been.

There have absolutely been some bangers recently that have made me remember how great Twitter can be. The weekly #DiabetesChat, using Spaces, launched a new community that, although based in the UK, was very much global. Tom and the organisers went out of their way to include people from other places around the world to be interviewed and lead discussions. I loved it straight away for the beautiful open and welcome feeling that was there and embraced it. #dedoc° isn’t really a Twitter based organisation, but the #dedoc° voices use it brilliantly, and diabetes conference are so visible because of their prolific sharing.

In the last few days, a new Twitter-like app called Threads has been launched and I tentatively signed up and had a nosy look around. It felt like Twitter in 2012. Friendly. Fun. Open. I’ve found Threads friends (thriends?) who I’ve not seen around the Twitter traps for years and have re-engaged. I’ve managed to steer clear from the parts of diabetes Twitter that I’ve actively avoided over recent years.

It’s not perfect. There needs to be an option for people to add ALT text to photos, because that’s not there yet. Apparently it is coming. (But, you know, accessibility should have been a first level consideration, not an after thought…) A desktop version would be useful – it’s annoying only having the option to type on a phone keypad. The lack of hashtags is annoying. (Just today, I went back and read the tweets from that first Australian social media summit by searching the hashtag. What a treasure trove!) Again, this is said to be on the cards. As is the capability to see only threads from people you’re following rather than the mishmash right now. Having said that, sprinkled in amongst the predominantly diabetes focused threads I’ve been seeing, I’m not too disappointed with the cat pics, recipes and book recommendations that I’m seeing a lot of. Also pleasing is that I’ve managed to avoid so much as a hint of the crappy, manipulative, misogynist side of the diabetes world that clouded my Twitter experience for a while before I worked out how to block it out completely.

Is this the future of Twitter? Over here on this new app? Threads feels like the nostalgia Nick wrote about. It really does feel like the ghost of Twitter past and I like it a whole lot more than the ghouls of Twitter present. Come and visit if you’re not there already. I’m @RenzaS and you’ll see me sharing diabetes stuff, pet photos, books. And asking people about their diabetes experiences to help me make sense of my own. I hope to see you there!