Twitter DM Friends
It’s easy to fall into traps on social media. Echo chambers. Fighting strangers. Following people that negative shitpost all day long can energetically zap you into the same negative space they are.
Or you can play by a different set of rules.
One of my favorite past-times is to find the people that do the opposite and DM them. But, it turns out that most people are not accustomed to a real human being reaching out to say thanks or that you respect their style. So when that positive DM comes through, they respond!
Combined with using a personal CRM like Contact Mapping (a shout-out to the last company I worked at) to nudge me not to forget them, I’ve made a dozen real friendships over the years.
No, these are not all people I agree with all the time. Many of them have conflicting values with me, but that’s ok because we see each other as real people. Because of that, I can have nuanced, sustained conversations over a variety of topics. This has been a much more fulfilling experience than responding to @johnny83747, who posted a snarky response to an otherwise benign post, and then we block each other only for the cycle to repeat with @tammy24837.
So try it out. You’ll have a different social media experience if you lean into it.
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About Rick Manelius
Quick Stats: CXO of Atomic Form. Graduated from MIT in '03 (BS) and '09 (PhD). Life hacker and peak performance enthusiast. This blog is my experiment in creative writing, self-expression, and sharing what I've learned along my journey. For more information, read my full bio here or contact me.