There’s been a lot of talk about leaving Twitter over the last few days.  To be honest, I’ve contemplated it myself.

Yes, it’s increasingly shaped to serve the agenda of those with money and power, but Twitter, like all social media, is a tool, like any other.   We don’t have to use it the way others want us to.

Perfectly illustrated this weekend:

On Saturday, we ventured into unknown parts of London in search of roads that share our surnames.  Boxall Road is in North Dulwich, not far from the Picture Gallery, while the much more impressive-sounding Gibbs Avenue is in Upper Norwood.  An interesting day’s walk, that just left us with the question ‘Why?‘

A quick post on Twitter, and sure enough, the answer came back in seconds.   A certain Robert Boxall kept the old ‘Greyhound Inn’ nearby, and having made a bit of money, decided to go into property development.

Thanks Dulwich Society!

The point of this story?

Social media is a tool like any other.  You choose how you want to use it.   And the best way turns out to be the way we use any other means of communication – to have real conversations with real people – to make connections, not break them.