Teresa Berkowitz

Admittedly, I was too comfortable in my relationship with Twitter. I let Twitter be my everything. I even started ghosting my close friends and family on FaceBook. My partner Twitter was EXCITING. We could stay up long hours talking about politics. I could be my snarkiest and my partner was always “Yeah! Great! More! More!” We were always the first to know what was going on. Sometimes, I would go back onto FaceBook to smugly let people know that what they were posting was OLD NEWS. I saw it already on Twitter.

But lately, I’ve been noticing things have gotten weird. First, there was this strange announcement that speech and comedy is free but it always was so I think, well sure be a little dramatic but who doesn’t like a laugh? I mean I’m not going to break up with my soulmate over a little drama. But then COMEDIANS are cut out of our lives and my partner is laughing it up with unfunny people saying dumb but hate-filled things.

And it gets worse. I’m drinking my morning coffee and there’s a NAZI in my space. Literally saying hateful things. And murderers. And people who say they want to rape and kill you because you believe that no one should use hate speech. And there’s your partner getting right in your face and putting up meme posters of all this hate. Sorry but I don’t want to see memes every which way I look.

So, I think I’ll go connect with my friends, and suddenly they are erased from my Twitter feed. No warning. Just suspended. So I am beginning to feel a bit panicked. I put out a few feelers. Hey, do you want to get some coffee at Mastodon, or Post.News? I talked politics at Tribel. I reconnect with my family and old college friends on FaceBook and Instagram. I put on my business clothes and have great conversations over at LinkedIn. Maybe everything will be okay.

But guess what. My partner was lurking and getting angrier and angrier each time I mentioned my friends. And now, my partner’s made an ultimatum, “It’s me or them,” and I can’t even mention them or I am out!

The thing is, the worse Twitter becomes, the less I want to be in this relationship. Only in a toxic relationship can your partner think they can exert dominance and make your world small and you will stay forever. But they are blind to the feelers that we are putting out. Soon, we will fall in love again. A bit wiser, with less dependence and a lot more joy.