Now that I have my own laptop and we\u2019re quarantined, I can peruse Twitter more freely, and more often, than I could when I was just using my broke-down iPhone 4s. That\u2019s exactly what I was doing the other day, just scrolling through Twitter when I came across a gripping post that I had to comment on and retweet. Mind you I do this pretty often without fanfare, and had no suspicions that this time would be any different.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But it was.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Shortly after my tweet was sent out, an unfamiliar thing started to happen. I started to see numbers on my notifications bell. Every now and again I\u2019ll have one or two, and if there\u2019s more, it\u2019s usually an \u201cIn case you missed it\u201d reminder rather than someone actually engaging with me. After 11 years of being on Twitter, I\u2019ve grown fine with that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Of course I clicked on the bell to see what it was, and it was a couple of people liking my retweeted post. Oh, how nice. Why, thank you<\/em> I thought. I left my notifications and returned to my timeline, but it wasn\u2019t long before it started up again. I went back to my notifications, and more likes, a retweet with a retweet of my retweet and comment here and there. That\u2019s amazing! <\/em>I responded to the comment and went back to my timeline. But the numbers just kept coming on the bell. Being that this is so new to me, I couldn\u2019t help but go and see what was going on. Turns out, it was in fact more likes, more retweets \u2013 oh my!<\/p>\n\n\n\n I knew I didn\u2019t have enough followers to garner that many eyeballs on my retweet, so I went back and did some investigating. What happened was the guy whose post I initially retweeted had over 350,000 followers and when I retweeted his post with my comment, he retweeted my retweet, thereby exposing me to all his followers, then 16 other people retweeted me too, and there you have it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I have to admit, seeing that bell go off with numbers \u2013 I couldn\u2019t check my notifications fast enough before another came \u2013 was exhilarating. All of a sudden I became Sally Field at the Oscars, \u201cYou like me, you really like me!\u201d So much so that my \u201capproval,\u201d me being \u201cliked\u201d was more thrilling to me than what I was actually retweeting about. And the thing is, I didn\u2019t even retweet the post to get likes, but once I got them, they were becoming king.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In total, I got 113 likes, 17 retweets and 2 comments, which clearly is not viral status, but it\u2019s a hell of a lot for me. When notifications began to wear down and my initial excitement did too, it occurred to me that I was more excited about getting likes and retweets than I was about the main reason that I even sent it. And, it was a pretty serious tweet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It was about a hospital worker who had been working in a Covid-19 unit, with no family of his own here in America, now in ICU asking others to pray for him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I know, right?<\/p>\n\n\n\n I said a prayer for him immediately, and I still say prayers for him occasionally now that the thrill of getting likes has worn off. But I still can\u2019t believe, after getting the tiniest taste of it, how intoxicating getting likes can be.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I was always one to judge those people. I deemed them so superficial. And hell, if I\u2019m truthful, I was right. That shit is superficial as fuck. But damn if it don\u2019t feel good, and that\u2019s real as fuck as well. Because when you get right down to it, everybody wants to be liked in some form or fashion, and if that\u2019s absent in your life in some form or fashion, how can I judge somebody for wanting to fill that void?<\/p>\n\n\n\n So anyway, I said all that to say, I will try not to judge those people; I understand them better now. Another thing I understand is how important it is to really be grounded in who you are so that you don\u2019t have to rely on superficial thing like likes to bring you joy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Now that the dust has settled, and I\u2019ve come back to my senses, I\u2019m glad that my retweet got all those likes and retweets if it also means that Mohammed Hamayda \u2013 that\u2019s the worker \u2013 got that many more prayers. All though one will do, I know what it\u2019s like first-hand to feel the power of many.<\/p>\n\n\n\n What\u2019s not to like about that!<\/p>\n\n\n\n prayers up… https:\/\/t.co\/JNaIQBQcB4<\/a><\/p>— Shescribe (@Shescribe) April 16, 2020<\/a><\/blockquote>