Twitip

By Sean Platt, a ghostwriter for hire and creative blogger who (as you might imagine) loves to tweet.

For those of us who are constant Tweeters, even a short time away from our most beloved distraction can sometimes be a bit difficult. I know when I step away for more than an extended moment, I can sometimes feel overwhelmed by the sheer traffic flying in front of my eyes, wondering how on earth I will ever catch up with the stream.

There are times I’ve stared at the screen dumbfounded – DM’s and @’s that needed answering, a dozen conversations in flux, and a lion’s share of links longing for my eyes.

And all the while the traffic just keeps flowing with the steady beat of Pacific Coast Highway at midday.

Most of my breaks from Twitter, at least along the last few months, have been single digit hour affairs. At the very least, I’m able to dip in for a few minutes here and there while I’m in between tasks. This last couple of weeks however, has had my work and home life punching each other in the face like two drunken roommates. Twitter held about the same priority as buying socks and the only times @WriterDad was seen on Twitter was the result of automated plugins (which made me feel like I had my own pet robot. Really cool, but definitely not me).

When I was finally ready to sink into the stream, I felt suddenly 16 again – back in that Nissan Sentra with brakes on the passenger side and a big sticker splayed across the rear bumper with the words, “Student Driver.”

I remember idling on the onramp, unsure of my direction; hesitating at the lip of of do or die. If I were to surge ahead I would be risking life and limb against the onslaught of oncoming traffic, but it was way too late to throw the gears into reverse.

Cars were lining up behind me, impatient for me to find my momentum.

Obviously the 140 characters of a tweet can carry nowhere near the weight of a couple tons of Japanese steel, but the trepidation shares the same sphere. Like merging onto the freeway, merging into tweeway traffic will only happen when you make it so.

So, instead of flicking on my blinker and crossing half a dozen lanes, I made my first @ and jumped right in.

I spent an hour in Twitter traffic, cruising across the lanes, slowly thanking followers for retweets, answering DM’s, and acknowledging jokes with my belated laughter. After a few minutes, I was smiling to myself and wondering what had taken me so long.

I hope I don’t allow too much time to pass during my next twiatus, but sometimes life doesn’t allow my preferences to pull rank. It’s been a long while since I was 16, and I am now a confident driver to say the least. I love cruising the freeway with the tunes filling my cabin. There’s no reason I can’t treat the tweeway the same.