Design Twitter

This post is delayed—I was planning to commemorate 10 years of being on Twitter back in July, but other things got in the way. However, with the furore around Elon Musk’s buy-out of the site, it seems pertinent to write about Twitter now, especially as many people I follow are starting to flee the platform and set up elsewhere because of Musk’s venture capitalism and questionable ethics.

For now, I’ve made the decision to stay put though. While my activity on Twitter had started to wane long before Musk bought it up, the idea of setting up something else seems like a chore I don’t currently have time for. If a viable alternative that is simple to join and use presents itself, I may reconsider, especially if those that I follow on Twitter end up on that single site rather than scattered across multiple platforms. But for now, you can still find me at twitter.com/_nigelball

I sort of joined Twitter accidentally. I’d been reluctant to sign-up for several years, ignoring people I respected talking it up, and resisting student invites. At the time I just didn’t get the point of the platform. I was drawn in by GraphicDesign& though, who were holding a residency at The Design Museum in July 2012. As part of this they encouraged a live participatory activity via Twitter and I was intrigued. The theme Lucienne Roberts and Rebecca Wright were exploring—graphic design in the everyday—chimed with my personal research interests. My arm duly twisted, I joined so that I could take part on the day of their residency, not thinking I would actively use my account after this event. (See GraphicDesign& Everything on Dubdog.)

How wrong I was.

Looking back on the last 10 years, I can honestly say that I have been enriched by my experience of Twitter. It bought me into contact with John L Walters, editor of Eye magazine, which led to me writing for their blog, (and I have since got other writing commissions via the site). I’ve networked with other design educators across the UK and internationally, and we’ve ended up Direct Messaging each other and discussing such things as working conditions at our respective universities, pedagogical approaches to teaching design, as well as to signpost resources. I’ve also been able to use it to post about events students or I have been involved in, which has increased interest in these, as well as showcase job adverts I’ve been promoting for work to a wider audience, bringing in applications from further afield than might have been the case from the advert just being seen on jobs.ac.uk.

I’ve pro-actively used Twitter as a research tool to link up with others with similar interests and it has opened up a world of information and resources I wouldn’t have found on my own. I’ve also used it to showcase my writing and increased traffic through my blog as a result, which in turn has provided valuable input from peers I would not have come into contact with offline, furthering my research. I’m very much in a agreement with Andy Adams, it can be an effective online ecosystem.

Aside from the productive nature of how I’ve used Twitter, the lighter moments have been fun as well, such as the now defunct #FontSunday that The Design Museum used to run, (#FontFriday just doesn’t work for me unfortunately, it being a workday), or the comedy posts offering a welcome break from some of the bleaker moments of the last 10 years. 

I’ve mostly managed to avoid the negative aspects of the site that many complain about. The odd occasion I got dragged along with political diatribes, of either left and right alignments, I’ve been fortunate enough to keep my head and not get dragged into being involved. I quickly circumnavigated what others complained of by the simple trick of unfollowing or muting people who got too feisty, showed too much negativity, or who re-tweeted others’ hateful content. I never understood the arguments about the platform being a cesspit of negativity—yes it is there, and yes it is toxic, but there has always been the possibility to unfollow the haters and the trolls. When I have actively done this, my timeline has improved immediately. 

Despite my protestations about advertising in general, I’ve always been relaxed about in on Twitter, (and other social media platforms). Twitter is (currently) free for users, and I accept that the owners have to get their money from somewhere, so I’ve put up with it in return for the benefits I’ve got from using the site. 

I do have concerns about where Twitter will go under Musk; particularly his view of what constitutes free speech and the workers’ rights being stripped from under the site’s employees. I’ll watch and wait, and weigh-up whether I can stomach the changes inevitably coming down the line. If it does sink further and I feel forced to leave, no longer able to condone its methods by my patronage, I’ll still be thankful for my time at @_nigelball. 10 years is a pretty good run and I’ve met some genuinely interesting people who have gone on to become trusted acquaintances.