I joined Twitter a few years back, when I used to write a blog about the horribly sketchy bus I used to ride to and from work. I figured with Twitter I could share interesting vignettes about what happened on the bus, like the time I learned that you shouldn’t get kicked out of rehab in the winter, because if you’re on the street, your heroin might freeze. Or the time a pimp passed out onto my lap. Good times. 

But to be honest, I never really “got” Twitter until maybe the last 9 months or so. Like most middle aged moms, I’d log onto it and be like “I have no idea what I’m doing and none of my friends are on here” and walk away from it. Then, suddenly, it just clicked for me, and I was finding more people whose content was interesting to me, and suddenly I came to love Twitter.

I now have awesome Twitter friends, most of whom are other cancer peeps, and we really have conversations there. I also use Twitter to keep up with information about cancer research and to connect with other folks working in the field of cancer. And of course, I follow a lot of very funny mom bloggers on Twitter too, because who doesn’t need a good laugh sometimes? I also participate in quite a few Twitter chats on healthcare topics, especially the weekly BCSM and BCCWW chats when I have time. It’s cool to virtually hang out, especially when fatigue keeps you in bed a lot.

I find my Twitter feed is waaaaaay better than my Facebook feed. The Facebook algorithm is horrible. It shows me a lot that I don’t care about. I love that Twitter is just a raw feed, and because everything is only 140 characters, scrolling past the unnecessary stuff is easier than it is on Facebook. If Twitter had all the bells and whistles of Facebook (the groups there are pretty sweet), and if all my friends were on Twitter, I’d probably abandon Facebook entirely.

Still, there are things I don’t get about Twitter. Sometimes I wonder how some of my Twitter followers find me. Like, a few months back, an Irish member of the European Parliament followed me on Twitter, and I was like “Dude, that’s so cool! Wait, how did she find me?” We didn’t appear to have any followers in common or to be following any of the same people; I didn’t see anything in her issue areas that had to do with cancer. I still don’t know how she found me, though I’m honored that she (or more likely one of her staffers) did.

Then there’s like the weird random users that find me seemingly just to try to get me to follow them back. Like, there’s a cancer zodiac sign one that keeps following me and then unfollowing me and then following me again, as though this time I might be like “Oh, yes, I do want to follow you” even though I’m a Libra. Like, fix your search, dude. Last week, a Florida-based law firm specializing in personal injury and criminal defense followed me, as did a Seattle area home building company. Both of those had me scratching my head, especially the law firm. Like, I’ve never been arrested and I don’t have cause to sue anyone–especially not in Florida. 

Recently someone whose user name was in a Cyrillic alphabet followed me. I looked at what they post and it was all click-baity articles, in English. I wonder how much money one can be paid to create random Twitter accounts and go around following random people hoping they’ll follow you back, and then posting stuff that needs page views? 

And of course, there’s my really big question: why hasn’t Taye Diggs followed me? He follows freaking EVERYONE, but not me. Like, he probably follows that cancer zodiac person, and not me. What did I ever do but love you, Taye Diggs?!?!? Do you know how many times I’ve listened to the Rent soundtrack?!?! 

Are you guys on Twitter? Do you get random people following you that you can’t imagine how they found you? Does Taye Diggs follow you?