@PrincessofVP works in law enforcement and is a compulsive and charming Tweeter and blogger. This is why she tweets:
The Twitter tapestry
Twitter is like a multi-threaded, multi-coloured tapestry, with a million extra threads being weaved every second.
Sometimes the only way to view it, the only way to keep up, is pick the threads you like the colour of and follow those.
I didn’t know what I wanted nor what I would get when I joined Twitter. I had heard it mentioned, promoted, and it struck me – living alone in a new city with few local friends – as an interesting thing to sign up to. I believe I naively thought I would make a few friends and possibly find some new hobbies.
How very wrong I was.
I didn’t make a few friends, I made loads. I didn’t find new hobbies, I found within me a passion for justice, politics, feminism, to name but a few, that Twitter feeds directly into.
Before Twitter I can’t imagine that I would have gone on a protest march over cuts to our police service, nor walked and raised funds for legal aid centres. I just simply wouldn’t have known that such things were happening and I’m glad that my use of social media gave me the chance to get involved.
I also found an online presence for my writing via Twitter. My blogs may be sporadic, the tunes I refer to sometimes unusual, but to have that outlet for my thoughts and emotions on the world has been a wonderful thing for me. I am gratified that people read and moreover like what I write.
The greatest compliment I have been paid is that I make people think. I hope I always continue to do so.
Anonymity
It would be impossible for me to talk about Twitter without addressing the issue of anonymity.
People are anonymous online for all sorts of reasons, the majority of which are benign and relate to issues of safety and personal preference as opposed to a desire to hide behind the cover of a mask in order to be unpleasant or derogatory. My choice was simple in that it would be a severe hindrance to my job if I were not an anonymous account, and so could engender risks to me, my colleagues, and others.
I may use Twitter for work, I don’t talk about my work. That is a very important distinction to me. Through Twitter I talk to swathes of different people within the criminal justice system and these exchanges help me to do what I do.
At no point does that involve discussing specifics of any person, case, or operation; anything else would be unprofessional.
Twitter is about people
Twitter, to me, is about people.
People sharing their interests, debating issues, having fun. It can be heated, it can be amusing, and it can also be unpleasant. That is people. That is what they do. If we all agreed on every single issue the world would be a poorer place because of it.
That’s not that I advocate the unpleasant, far from it. But I don’t hold the belief that someone is wrong just because they don’t agree with me! For one, I’m not that I arrogant. And two, I’m not sure I’m always that right! What I believe today, what I think of as true, may change tomorrow based on the interactions I have both online and in the so called ‘real world’.
And I say so called with good reasons. I referred earlier to the friends I have made online and they are legion; from a casual acquaintance I may have the occasional coffee with to close networks of support where we know we can all turn to each other if we need to. I can’t imagine my life as that slightly lonely girl in a new city turning out as well nor as enjoyably as it has without Twitter and the people that make Twitter what it is. Back then, today, and every single day.
It’s only Twitter
But for all that, it is only Twitter. If you don’t like it or it’s making you unhappy, then log off, put your phone down, walk away.
There is a whole world there to enjoy, whether online or off. I will continue to follow and weave my own multi-coloured threads and hope that I continue to inspire thought along the way.
This is the 47th post in the criminal justice/legal Why I tweet series. Read the others here.
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