Twelve months ago I was just one of a multitude of people sitting on the peripheries of Twitter, following a few celebrities and never really tweeting. I had a small number of followers (less than 10) and we never really interacted.
I’ve always been a huge fan of the drama series [Spooks] and when series 9 ended with Lucas North a.k.a. John Bateman appearing to jump to his death, I searched Twitter to see what the rest of the country had to say about his fate. Was he really dead? Had he taken up base jumping? You know the kind of thing…
What I found was a whole community of people. Well…more accurately…what I found was Lucas North cleaning his gun…but that’s another story! Seriously though, I found a small group of people united in their love of a certain Mr Armitage. So, I ventured a few tweets in their direction and found, to my surprise, that they tweeted back and before I knew it I was involved in conversations and role plays, and was laughing until my sides hurt. Of course I found that we had far more in common than an obsession with an actor and it was so refreshing to find people that didn’t think I was weird for loving history and genealogy.
To say Twitter changed my life might seem like an exaggeration or make me sound like someone with no social skills spending her life glued to a computer…but I’m serious. A few years ago I went through a traumatic break up and it’s fair to say that since then I have struggled making friends outside of work and just generally moving on. On New Year’s Eve last year I had to work…I never find that time of year especially easy and I was feeling particularly low. A friend at work was very kind to me and although that helped, I was teary when I left, depressed at the thought of an evening alone when everyone else was having fun. I posted something to that effect on Twitter and was rather surprised at the reaction. “Let’s have a Twitter party!” was the suggestion.
Well…I had the best New Year’s Eve I’d had for many many years. I spent it sat at my computer, drinking rum and coke, and chatting to lots of other people on Twitter who were in similar situations. We shared music and laughs and although I was physically alone, I have never felt less so. I vowed to spend less time wallowing in self-pity and more time living…call it my New Year’s resolution.
And live I certainly have…
Apart from making a concerted effort to go to the theatre and concerts, the highlight of the last 12 months has been me being brave enough to meet in person nine of the lovely people I’ve been chatting to on Twitter.
I’ve been to pub gigs, had a day out in York, had a picnic in Regent’s Park followed by a trip to London Zoo, spent a very wet day wandering round London trying not to get lost and, I was even brave enough to go and stay in a hotel managed by one of my new friends and spent 2 lovely days enjoying Devon with her. Most importantly I’ve made friendships that I hope will last a lifetime and met people I really care about.
I’ve done more this year than I’ve done in the whole of the last 10 years and I’m not sure I would ever have done so much if it wasn’t for the unstinting and unconditional friendship I found online. I can’t tell you how much it’s meant to me and how much it really and truly has changed my life. I’ve found inspiration where I thought there was none, and no longer feel alone in life.
So to all of you…and you know who you are…thank you…from the very bottom of my heart.
I love you xxxxxxxxx
Beautifully written Kathryn. Loved it! Reading that took me back to the first time I ever tweeted you. Your name always seemed to crop up every time Lucas North was about. I was already following some of the lovely people you were chatting to so I followed you and we hit it off straight away. You certainly are the muckiest crumpet eater I’ve ever met! Oh boy we’ve had some laughs on Twitter, on the phone and in real life! One typo sticks in my mind tho when you used to tweet about yr *coughs* noisy neighbours and I told you to shove bottom wool in your ears …oh my! Looking forward to seeing you again soon…not long now! You’re a true friend and I think non Twittering people have difficulty understanding how you can forge such close friendships on a computer screen! Like you I’ve met some really special people and had the BEST laughs! Blimey don’t I go on!
Love you too! Xxx
It’s nice to see you enjoying life at last and you know what, liking history & genealogy doesn’t make you weird…different people like different things. From where I’m sitting (currently on my sofa!) what Twitter has given you is not only some great friends but belief in yourself…which you never should have lost! I’ve certainly enjoyed the giggles & gossiping we’ve had in the office about the somewhat surreal world of Twitter! x
Such a great story! I don’t tweet as much as I’d like due to time constraints but I too have met a handful of tweople.
Your adventures sound really fun!
Thanks…it has been a fab and fun year…here’s hoping the next 12 months is just as good!
How did I miss this ?
Oh twitter has brought such fun, laughs & giggles into our lives, & has certainly livened up many a dull evening…..plus met some really fabulous new friends, who have me in stitches & howling with laughter !
Totally addicted now…
Loved meeting you too, & we will have many a tweet up in the future… & I still giggle at fun times in Devon x
Bring it on !
cast the net mate – you never know who you will hook…
x x x x
This is really inspiring — I can’t spend any more time online than I already do, and the chirpy aspect of twitter is distracting when I need to concentrate, but it’s neat that it helped you find friends.
Thanks! Twitter is indeed distracting and I have some days where I don’t tweet much at all! But…as you say…it has helped me and I am so glad I found such great people. It’s also helped me find a lot of other things like Wattpad…inspiring me to write, and other people’s blogs…inspiring me to start my own!
Hmmmm….maybe I need to find out more about Twitter and Wattpad at long last! Your story is really inspiring…as Servetus said. I also follow her blog and Bccmee’s, and a few others dedicated to RA.
How’s the best way to start finding out about Twitter, please?
The best way is just to bite the bullet and create an account then maybe choose to follow people you already know e.g. Servetus, bccmee, me. The Richard Armitage fandom is a good place to start when looking for people to follow…friendly and fun! As for Wattpad…you don’t need to join it to read most of the stories there and there’s plenty of RA fanfic to read if that’s your thing. You only need to join to comment or vote.
I’d also suggest getting a twitter client right away. I use Hootsuite. Frenz recommends Tweetdeck as well. I didn’t “get” the utility of twitter especially well because my email wasn’t getting all the tweets directed at me and so I ended up missing pieces of conversations. Hootsuite collates them all nicely in conversations and makes the whole thing easier to understand.
[...] friends on Twitter, as mentioned previously, opened up a whole new world to me…and that world was the Richard Armitage fandom. The [...]
[...] Twitter – Again, much like Mr A, without Twitter I would never have found a lot of the friends that are now so important to me. As I’ve mentioned before, it changed my life. [...]