Testing Twitter (or Entrusting Elon)

@jpepperbryars cautiously wades back into the social media cesspool

There are many reasons why my longtime avatar wears a gas mask while banging away at that old typewriter.

One of them represents an attempt to isolate myself from the poisonous thoughts of naysayers and bad-faith actors while I work.

And nowhere is that fitler needed more than on Twitter.

@jpepperbryars is back.

For a while at least.

Longtime readers know that I quit social media several years ago.

I not only found that it was bad for me personally (I found myself publicly ridiculing a lifelong friend for some crazy beliefs. I zapped my Facebook and Twitter accounts the next day).

I found it was very bad for me professionally. First, it stole time away from writing, and as the involved father of five incredibly active kids and the practitioner of two demanding professions, I don’t have any time to spare. Secondly, social media companies began to suppress my work and limit what my followers actually asked to see.

Then along comes Elon, and many know what happened next. He cracked open Twitter and promised to unleash not only its true potential as a worldwide marketplace of ideas, but to keep it honest in the process.

I watched and waited, and read about the experiences of a few fellow writers.

It seems like Elon is keeping his promise.

So, I’ll give it a try.

But … I’m not going to “be” on Twitter.

I’m not going to trade jabs with people all evening, sitting on the sideline of a soccer game, distracted while my daughter scores yet another goal (bragging, I know, but she is good). I won’t have the app on my iPhone (I don't even have an internet browser on it, much for the same reason), and I’ll only use Twitter when I have something of value to share.

As Joe Rogan says, I will most often “post and ghost.”

So, if you’re on Twitter, follow me if you’d like, and share my work when you want to.

Or not.

That gas mask will stay on, filtering out most everything that flows from the place, both the good and the bad.

(J. Pepper Bryars is Alabama’s only reader-supported conservative journalist. You can support his writing by subscribing at https://jpepper.substack.com/subscribe.