‘Keeping A Twitter’ As A Public Writing Exercise And Private Timeline

Ryan O’Connell puts some deep thought into why we use Twitter, and what we could ever hope to get out of it. His piece, On Keeping a Twitter, takes noted author Joan Didion’s essay On Keeping a Notebook (direct PDF link) as its comparison point.

The private notebook versus very public tweet disparity is obvious, but O’Connell nails one similarity down: Twitter, like a notebook, can later tell you “What it was to be me: that is always the point.” Are you hoping Twitter, or Facebook, will one day be your place to look up your old life? [Thought Catalog via @rosa; image via koalazymonkey]