A few days ago the social media platform formerly known as Twitter alerted me it was my 14th anniversary as @sowhatfaith.
Since this may be my last such anniversary, I decided this was a good time to reflect on my journey.
Getting Started
In the early years, I spent more time on Twitter than anywhere else in social media land. And, I regularly wrote about those experiences here on So What Faith, including celebrating several twitterversaries and a reflection an award I won:
- Celebrating my Twitterversary (September 2010)
- Two Years of Tweeting (September 2011)
- My First 3 Years on Twitter (September 2012)
- Winning a Re-Tweet Award (October 2012)
- Twitter: My First 6 Years (September 2015)
More Recently
While I continued to tweet at similar rates to the earlier years, over the last five years I’ve spent less and less of my total social media time on Twitter. And that number has declined even more dramatically following last year’s change in ownership. Sadly, since that change I’ve also seen many people I’ve followed for many years and deeply respect leave X. My more recent blog posts on my tweeting experiences have focused on the content of tweets more than the act of tweeting:
- Tweeting: My First Decade (September 2019)
- Thinking Theologically: Exploring 5 Tweets (May 2021)
- 10 Most Liked Tweets in Last 10 Years (October 2021)
- Tweets Worth Thinking About (May 2022)
Consistency
Every three to four years since I started tweeting, I’ve published between 5,000 and 6,000 tweets. Or, put differently, my volume of tweeting has been surprisingly consistent across my entire experience on the platform.
| 2009-2012 | 2012-2015 | 2015-2019 | 2019-2023 | |
| # of Tweets | 5,000 | 5,100 | 5,000 | 5,800 |
| # Followers | 800-900 | 1,400-1,500 | 1,975-2,075 | 2,025-2,300 |
So What?
I am so thankful that Twitter has given me the opportunity to connect with so many wonderful people over the years. And, I am also grateful for people I don’t really know at all who have provided answers to questions I’ve asked and/or made connections on my behalf.
For now, you can expect to continue to see me on X. I plan to continue to share quotes of interest for newly published books and to, on occasion, engage in real time conversation about current events (the books referenced in the tweets are the same ones you’ll find mentioned here in a monthly best books post the first week of every month).