It is the 29th of December, 2022. The world I live in today is nothing at all like the one I lived in when I wrote this, in 2009. In a ton of ways, this world and this life is so much better now. I am so much better, now. But as you know since you live in this world at this moment, holy shit so much is so terrible. America walked about waist deep into full-on Fascism and hasn’t fully gotten out of the water, yet. And a huge part of that, it turns out, can be traced to Twitter. Millions of words have been written about it since 2009, so I’m just going to say this: I left Twitter when I realized it was amplifying and spotlighting white nationalists, fascist authoritarians, and vicious brigades of trolls and bullies. I believed then, as I do now, that Twitter’s policies regarding bullying and misinformation proved the Tolerance Paradox. I walked away from roughly 3 million followers, and looked back only once, in 2022, to let them know about my memoir. I have not regretted that decision for a second.
About three months ago, Apartheid Nepo Baby Elon Musk took over Twitter, and in a matter of days, managed to make it even less safe, more toxic, more dangerous, than it already was. I believe his ownership of Twitter presents a meaningful danger to the most vulnerable people in our society, and any fleeting thoughts I ever had about giving Twitter a try again were quickly banished to the cornfield. I won’t be part of anything that despicable man touches.
I want/need to clear something up real quick. I have to keep @wilw active so some piece of shit doesn’t grab it and do who even knows what with it. But I locked my account and deleted my entire archive the day Musk bought it, long before I wrote this.
Twitter under Elon Musk does not take safety (physical, emotional, societal) seriously at all, and the consequences of that in the years to come are going to be dire. Twitter is well on its way to becoming 4chan, and Elon Musk is its Head Troll. Since taking over, he’s eliminated safety teams, spread misinformation, and brought the most vile, hateful, literal Nazis back into the platform, where he engages with them and promotes their rhetoric.
Twitter is like that awesome punk club that you used to love, that slowly got filled up with Nazis from out of town until they took over. And now one of them owns the place. Why in the world would you want to go there and be around Nazis, when there are countless other places to go where Nazis aren’t welcome?
My original post continues below, unedited.
Yesterday, my friend Alan tweeted a link to this story of how Twitter was born. If you use Twitter at all, you should totally check it out because it’s awesome. If you don’t use Twitter, you should totally check it out, because a lot of what you may have heard about Twitter is probably filtered through the traditional media lens, and Twitter is off in a completely different direction.
I’ve been thinking a lot about Twitter lately, mostly because I have a whole lot of fun using it, but also because the number of people who read my stupid messages on Twitter has exploded by several thousand in just the last few days. Yesterday morning I said Things I didn’t expect to see when I woke up today: 4714 people have looked at a picture of my socks. 51000 people are reading this. Um. I also said Now I have self conscious performance anxiety. Don’t say it don’t say it don’t say it don-PENIS! Sigh. Dammit. Ha. I slay me.
The truth is, that’s really weird to me. Even accounting for the damn spambots that auto-follow everyone, that’s a hell of a lot of people. I bet a lot of them don’t read my blog, and only know me as Gordie LaChance or Wesley Crusher, or the gangly kid who played those characters and was a lot more concerned about whether girls liked him than he was being honest and true to himself. The problem with being in the public eye is that the media always filters everything you do, highlights every stupid mistake you make, and aren’t as interested in showing people what you’re really like as they are in printing the story that will sell the most papers.
On Twitter, and on my blog, you’re seeing me, the husband, geek, and stepdad. You’re not seeing the kid in the Bop poster. (I don’t currently own that many watches or Batman painter’s caps, among other things) or the guy who is occasionally on your TV. This disconcerts some people — not a lot, but enough that I feel compelled to write Wil’s Quick Guide To Following Me On Twitter, mostly so people know what they’re getting themselves into, what to expect, and how much I’m going to disappoint them. (Pro Tip: No one is ever going to publish a tell-all biography about my life. Except maybe Wired, if I’m really lucky and earn it.)
Oh, and if I can make something painfully, embarrassingly clear before I begin: my whole idea here is to manage expectations and explain my own personal limits. I’m not trying to go on and on about how fucking cool I think I am and how you have to follow rules to follow me, or anything like that. I’m saying this now because some of the things down below, you may not want to hear. It’s not you, it’s me, and I hope you believe that.
So. We cool? Cool.
Message begins:
Hey there, @you! Welcome to my Twitter thingy. I’m @wilw, and I’ve been using this service for a long, long time, because my friend @seanbonner told me that it would be fun. At first, I didn’t understand what the point was, until @warrenellis said that our mutual friend @rstevens was fun to follow on Twitter because he was this constant stream of jokes and puns and wry observations. It was then that I realized that Twitter didn’t have to be about What are you doing? but could be about What’s on your mind right now? It was, as the saying goes, a light bulb moment for me, and I started using Twitter for off-the-top-of-my-head thoughts that didn’t warrant their own post here on my blog.
Since that day, I’ve sent out nearly 4000 updates (also called Tweets, because some people got together and decided that we needed a term that was even sillier and more embarrassing to say than ‘blog-o-sphere’) to a bunch of people, including, probably, @you.
I’m not going to tell you what Twitter is, or how you should use it. As @Pogue said in his NYT column about Twitter, The Web is full of “rules” about the proper way to Twitter, and a lot of them are just knowier-than-thou garbage. I couldn’t agree more, and encourage you to ignore them all, choosing instead to use Twitter however it amuses you.
Now, having said that, if you plan to follow me on Twitter, here are some things you should probably know, so you know what to expect from me:
1. I send out a lot of Tweets, frequently about stupid stuff that’s just amusing to me. From time to time I will send out several in just a few minutes. You probably shouldn’t follow me on your phone, because it’s going to get annoying. I have friends who are so prolific, I don’t follow them on my phone, and they’re my friends! I have friends who don’t follow me, because I tweet way too much for them. It’s cool, I know text message charges can be expensive, and I wouldn’t follow me, because I use Twitter a LOT. I don’t plan to change that, either. It’s fun and I like it.
2. I’m probably not going to follow you. I follow a few close friends, a few people whose work I really admire or whose Tweets really entertain me, and a couple of news sources. I can’t possibly follow all 53,000 of you (it went up since I sent those Tweets yesterday. Weird.) — or even one percent of that number — and still get any work done. I’m easily distracted, so I have to draw the circle very small so I can step out of it when I need to.
3. I do try to keep up with all the @replies to my messages, but most of the time when I’m at my computer, I’m working, and I can’t afford to stop what I’m doing every time a reply comes in. (Easily distracted, remember?) The extended conversations at Twitter can be awesome, especially when we’re all playing a global Improv game of Yes, and…, but ultimately I have to focus first on what pays my kids’ bills and keeps our roof up. Please know that even if I don’t reply, I do pay attention, and I thank you for taking the time to respond.
4. There is no number four.
5. If you’re expecting some kind of weird “celebrity” experience, I’m not your guy, and this is where some of you can point and scoff and pat yourselves on the back for saying, “Dude, you’re not a celebrity! Hurr hurr hurr.” That’s, um, kind of the point I’m trying to make. If you’re looking for a real celebrity, you want to follow someone else, and there are plenty of guides to who those people are. I’m just a geek, and I’m just this guy, you know? No one’s following me around with a camera hoping to catch me not wearing underwear under my skirt. I know, I’ve tried. Sigh.
6. The last thing I want to say really makes me feel like a dick, but it’s come up a lot and I owe it to all of you to be honest and open. I’m not going to lie to you, @you, it’s overwhelming, really cool, and a little scary that there are about 53,000 people following me on Twitter. If I think about it too much, like right now, I get freaked out. The way I continue having fun with Twitter is that I do what I want with it, and I hope you’ll come along for the ride if you think it’s worth it. But if you do follow me, please don’t @ complain at me about how often I’m tweeting or what I tweet about. I’m not interested in censoring myself for anyone — not for @you, not for @youtoo, and not even for you, @wilsmom. If you’re disappointed that I’m not the kid I used to be, or you decide I talk too much, or you just don’t think I’m very interesting, that’s cool — no one likes everything or everyone. But don’t ask me to change to please you. Just unfollow, and we’ll each go our own way, cherishing the time we had together and moving on. No regrets. We’ll always have Paris.
7. Lastly, a small request from me to @you: I’m not Gordie and I’m not Wesley. I’m Wil. Please show me the courtesy of using my real name, not the name of some guy you saw in a theater or on TV 20 years ago. I hope this explains why I’m sensitive about that, but if it doesn’t, think of it as someone using a nickname you really hate. They may not know any better, they may mean well, but it still gives you that little pain behind your eyes, doesn’t it?
Finally, on the off-chance that someone who makes Twitter go sees this: please let me give you money. I love Twitter and I really want to support it so it doesn’t go away.
Okay, that’s it. I hope this handy little guide has made it a little easier to know what to expect from me with this neat new toy. See you in the Twitterverse, @you!
Message ends.
Whew. That was really tough to write, because I’m so afraid of coming off wrong, or being misunderstood. Well, you miss 100% of the shots you don’t take, right? I will just hope that this is received in the way it was intended, and not the other way.
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I follow @wilw because @wilw totally makes my day or makes me spit Earl Grey out my nose and all over my Macbook at least once a week. Now stop worrying and keep twittering. Signed, @MartianDestiny
You didn’t come off “wrong”….Your tweets are a nicely balanced. Your tweet about “what you didn’t expect to see today…” made me laugh in a way i hadn’t in a while. Thank You.
Well done, man.
I started to follow you for 2 reasons. 1 once I got to meet you at the phx comic con and see just how much fun of a person you are, i really wanted to continue the silliness in my everyday. I love silly people. I love to laugh. Have you met my boyfriend? Hes insane and I love every second of my time w/ him…
and 2 even way back when my boss at the arizona ren faire (jessica) has been following you for oh eons i think and shes always busting up at what you say.
if people are stupid enough to think that bitching at you via twitter to change who are….well personally i’d be blocking them….they are dumber than they think. bah! stupid people irritate me. kay ill shut up about that now
I enjoy every post i get from you and if i log into the web twitter and see that i missed posts i get pissy that they were not delivered to my phone.
and lastly…god invented unlimited texting packages for cell phones for a reason. so we could follow people on twitter w/ out costing us an arm and a leg *grin* ^_^
Wil,
I’m currently not on Twitter; I just don’t have the time for it.
About your rule #5: I’ve already had a celebrity experience, and it was pretty cool. Sorry, wasn’t you. But, I *** REALLY *** don’t want to see you in your underwear, nor a skirt for that matter!!!!
Ok. Back to my own version of insanity…
Harlan…
P.S. Keep writing, I enjoy what you say – well, most of the time anyways.
One more voice crying in the wilderness, saying, “Ignore the crap out of people who try to steal away who you are.” You’re a funny person, and I’ve been following you since the first day I signed up on Twitter. No regrets here, except not yet having gotten to meet you in person! 🙂
Keep on being yourself, and doing what you do.
I am really ejoying twitter too… a bit too much… my husband follows me and says I tweet too much! LOL But at least I get to literally LOL at least once a day by following you!
I started to read your blog and twitter BECAUSE it was such an amazing look at husband/geek/stepdad. I’ve never posted before, but I wanted you to know it’s just a little bit wonderful.
I follow Wil because he’s fun and funny and we’re totally into the same stuff. I find almost everything you write about interesting.
I especially love to follow you when you go to a Con, although it makes me really jealous that I’m not there, too.
I wonder – is it possible that all those 53,000 people are also geeks? Maybe they are in the closet and just need to know that it’s okay to let their geek flag fly? Wouldn’t that be nice?
Following you, Levar, and Brent is awesome. While it’s true, I love ST:TNG so very much, that’s not why I follow you guys. Y’all are just so geeky and entertaining. I’ve been reading your blog for a while, and your tweets are just as entertaining.
#4 is my favorite. 😉
Hi Wil, I started following your tweets mostly because you have said some interesting things on /. (Well, once in a while anyway.)
Reason #1 should be on the Twitter home page when you sign up. Great post!
Dude. People call you by your character names? Dear god.
I follow you on Twitter and realize I’M following YOU which means it’s YOUR gig and you should be saying whatever you want, however you want, whenever you want as and as often as you want.
I’m a quite satisfied @wilw Twitter follower. Let me send YOU money!
I admit. I was snagged by “the resurrection” of someone reported to not be around a few years back.
I know “Stars” and “Celebrities” have a real life, and it is fun to follow intelligent life. If you are boring I won’t follow you.
Hang in there and be real.
While I admit I was a big fangirl for Wesley Crusher back in the day (I’m a bit younger than you), I must say, I follow you on Twitter and read your blog because Wil is a totally rockin’ guy as an adult.
As a geek-chick myself, married to a geeky guy, with plenty of geeky friends, I adore knowing that someone I had a crush on as a kid is actually MORE appealing and crush-worthy in real life… because in real life, you (WIL!) are the kind of guy that would hang with us and/or fit in with our life. And that’s cool.
And, no worries on too many tweets… “watching” the Superbowl with you the other day was amazing and made the experience so much better… and I’m a Steelers fan! I was loving it anyways! So, keep up the stream-of-geek-consciousness tweets and I’ll patiently await the day we finally end up at the same con!
Cheers!
Dawn
I love following your tweets. THey are hilarious. I don’t mind getting them on my phone as I have unlimited texts, I just wish I got them all. It seems I have a 50/50 chance of getting your tweet on my phone. No clue.
But please, please, please keep tweeting. It’s the best, even if I needed brain bleach during the Superbowl thanks to you 😉
*wanders off muttering about Madden porn*
lol
Can you put that in 140 characters or less 🙂
Totally understood- totally not being a dick. I like following your tweets because they are funny, sometimes clever even, and link to things I often find funny, clever, and nerdalicious.
Well said (written), and I’m still gonna follow ya, Wil!
Your tweets are highly entertaining – and actually MADE my superbowl experience super-awesome.
But all of your points (ESPECIALLY #4) are common sense, and even though we all know it IS!! I still understand your need to explain things in the interest of 100% disclosure and that’s what makes you sofa king cool, man!
Don’t Change A Thing.
@alro613
I agree with all the previous points, especially number 4.
My husband and I are geeks too (don’t tell him I admitted it) and enjoy following fellow geeks around.
It’d be cool to sit down and game with you sometime… RB2, D&D, whatever… that’s why you’re followed. 🙂
@LilDebLynn
If I didn’t have Twitterific on my iPhone to follow you, my days would be much more boring! I love that you’re just you…something most of the people I know have a hard time being. Keep it up Wil, you’re kicking geek ass 😉
@jrporter
@Wil – (“at Wil” – that just struck me as mildly amusing – ha) I won’t speak for everyone else, but I wouldn’t worry too much about Item #1 – Twitterspamming folks’ mobile devices. I found that I only get about one-fifth of your Tweets on my Crackberry. I’m not sure what’s more annoying: getting Tweeted constantly, or knowing that I’m missing so many updates.
I finally got so aggravated that I turned off mobile updates for your Tweets. Yes: I turned of mobile updates because I’m not getting enough of your Tweets. How much sense does that make?
Wil, that was one of your best posts, clear, concise, funny, witty, loved it.
I follow you (@BigMisterC) because you seem like a goddamned, down-to-earth person and you make me laugh. Don’t sweat the staggering number of followers; just picture us sitting in out BVD’s reading your tweets (because that’s probably not too far off the truth… LOL)
Hiya Wil,
Truthfully, I don’t think you need to worry. I think your following has as much (or more) to do with your Tweets (can’t even type that word with a straight face) than with the celebrity thing. I saw your name on someone’s list of followers (a music critic’s, I think – Toure? Kris Ex?), clicked on it out of curiosity (“Huh, is that really Wil Wheaton?”) and followed because I liked what I saw — not because of what you were up to in the 80s. And that’s coming from someone who’s a huge Stand By Me fan, and a one-time crusher on Wesley Crusher. (Groan. Sorry.)
Keep it up! (Meanwhile, I’ll resolve to cut down on my use of brackets.)
yeah, I followed you initially because I liked you in StarTrek, I admit, but I KEPT following you ’cause I enjoy your tweets… you use Twitter pretty much how I use it- to comment, share thoughts and connect with people. I love how you put yourself out there and unapologetic for it. I hate all these blog posts on rules for using Twitter… that’s what is cool about it, you can do what you will with it, follow who you like, unfollow or ignore those you don’t. It is what it is, you get it or you don’t. YOU get it, so far as I’m concerned!
I think, or at least I hope, that the majority of us follow people like you on twitter BECAUSE you aren’t the characters you used to play… at least that’s why I follow. I like getting the little 140-character gems of ‘IRL’ goodness from the objects of my fandom… I mean… favorite famous people?
And also, if for no other reason, I follow for the lulz!
XD
@ehmkay
Actually, I never really cared for Wesley Crusher. But that was thw writer’s fault, not yours.
I follow your blog and follow you on twitter because you’re Wil. And Wil totally fucking rocks.
That is all.
I never saw the interest in Twitter for a long while until your talking about it here on this blog got me interested. I’ve been using it for about a year now. I see following you as a bonus, since sometimes you say and share cool & funny stuff that doesn’t make it into your blog. Plus every time I read one of your tweets, I hear it in your voice. Sometimes with an added \mm/ depending on what you said.
@mrpunkjess
Wow that went from two comments to a gazillion in the time it took me to sign up…ok not a gazillion…
Anyway, I started following you on twitter because I am a TNG fan, but I have continued to follow you because I like what you tweet.
I think it’s obnoxious that someone would presume to tell anyone how they should tweet.
I don’t read your blog very often because, dude, you write a lot.
Yes 53000+ is overwhelming, and awesome. \m/
Also, my fav tweets of yours, the ‘conversations’ you have. Not that it matters. 😉
~Cecily
I think a lot of us are in the majority of following you ’cause you’re entertaining as hell. I swear, election night I thought you were going to have a panic attack…
Not that your panic attacks should be a source of amusement, but I digress.
It’s like when you were a kid, and you’d make a tape of your favorite songs to pop in your Walkman, ’cause you couldn’t take your whole album collection. The blog is the album experience; the tweets are the catchy songs. Almost all my Twitter interaction is on the phone, so your tweets are mobile, live entertainment.
How’s that for performance anxiety?
;^D
P.S. Thanks for verifying that you are many interesting things, but NOT a shitter Twitter!
P.P.S. If only those 53,000 could correlate into the whole ‘True Fan’ theorem.
Quoting Wayne Gretzky, eh?
That’s my favourite quote of all time, by the way.
Also, I love the tweets.
I started following you because:
1. other celebs figured out who I was and began blocking my every attempt to cyberstalk them.
2. I started at the end of the alphabet and YoYo Ma wasn’t that interesting, Wendy O. Williams is way to old, and Walt Whitman is dead.
3. you want to be my friend, you just don’t know it yet.
4. I want you to feel loved. That is why I created 52,397 separate Twitter accounts just to follow you.
5. your keen vocal stylings will soon have you atop the Pop charts and I will be able to say “I loved him first!!!!!”
6. I like your socks.
I started following @wilw because I was a ST:TNG fan, but I continue to follow @wilw because I am amazed at how often I really relate to something you tweet, even when it’s just an obscure song lyric or a movie reference or something you find funny. It’s like you know all the references that I know. 🙂
Maybe it’s just a similarity of perspective based on our being around the same age, rather than some deep cosmic kinship, as I am wont to believe.
I created an account on WWdN just to type this comment. Thanks, Wil, for your contributions to teh Internet!
If I had 50,000 followers, I’d be scared shitless. In fact, I’m already scared shitless and I only have eight!
Sadly, Wendy O. Williams is also dead.
I follow you because you’re a geek and I feel like we geeks need to stick together for the betterment of man/womankind. Plus, not a lot of people “get” us. You “get” us because you’re one of us.
I’ve seen a few “stars” use twitter for ENTIRELY the wrong reasons and I love that you’re just… you. Like, just some other iGeek out there who’s jokes we all get.
Keep up the good tweet! Or something.
Change your name to Wenji Wedwards and I will add you to my list once I am banned by Wil.
Ok, sounds cool.
Hi Wil-
I started reading your blog *years* ago ‘cuz I dug you as Wesley; I keep reading it ‘cuz I dig you as Wil. You are the entire reason that I signed up to Twitter (I’m @AliciaWag). Because of you, I can now follow LeVar & Brent (‘cuz I love ST:TNG but also ‘cuz I think they’re neat guys! I touched Brent’s hand once! AAAHHHH!!!!) Now I even get to follow Neil Diamond (shush, he’s a great musician) and John Cleese! Among plenty of other non-celebs, of course. It’s a great way to keep in touch, and it’s a lot of fun. So, um, I guess that’s it. Except that I was going to say that #4 was my favorite, until a bunch of others beat me to it. Darn!
-Alicia
[email protected]
http://www.thewagband.com
@sunbug here
I follow for the iTunes convos 😉
oh and the pop culture references…
But mostly for the amusing
Don’t let the haters get you down. It’s hard to slough off negativity, I know. But you’ve got better things to do with your time.
And don’t get too freaked about the masses that follow you. At least with those kind of numbers, you don’t have the self-conscious moments wondering what seemingly inoffensive tweet just made 2-3 followers drop you.
@pockygirl
I follow Wil’s blog and @wilw for a few reasons:
1) Wil is freakin’ funny and has a great sense of wit without being overbearing or pompous. I think, for Wil, he can Tweet something really quickly and not a full-on Blog post. And it’s always funny, poignant, or teaching us good life lessons, like “Don’t Be a Dick”, and, of course knowing what moves in life are +2 are important.
2) My wife and I met on the old Soapbox, so, in our mind, Wil brought us together and introduced us. I will always be grateful to Wil for that, even though he doesn’t know me (and he responded once about it, but that’s not the point…) Although we did invite him and Anne to the wedding, and where’s that gift?
3) I reply to @wilw, but I don’t expect anything back, unless it’s specific or poignant in his head, and even then, the guy has 58,000 following him….it’s not like he can get to everything.
So, I hope Wil keeps on Tweeting, and I plan on financially supporting Tweet as well, because sometimes, all you need is 140 characters right at that time.
-Shawn
@kcflatlander
Precise and concise… Thanks, Wil.
How can you come off as wrong or a dick if you’re just being you? If people do misunderstand, then they’re not reading it for who you are, but who they want you to be, and you don’t need to bother with them.
Long live the Geek. Frankly, your 140-character bursts of random insanity make me laugh all day. Best medicine ever.
People call you by character names? That’s really and truly disturbing. And sad.
@silvertales
I follow you because your human. With human thoughts. Damn amusing thoughts at times. Yup, I know who you are and it’s not a big deal. Been reading your blog for a while now so decided to follow on Twitter. I Tweet just to get things off my mind and sometimes they make sense only to me. Follow me or not follow me. I may reply sometimes, I may not. But it’s all good in the end.
People actually do #6 and #7? Wow. I’m sorry.
For what it’s worth, I think you struck the perfect tone with this post and you don’t sound at all dick-ish.
Personally, I would be more than a little freaked out by the sheer volume of followers, much less the occasional rude, creepy or stupid weirdness that must come with it.
Still, the good news is there’s a good number of those people who follow you for the same reason I do: Because Wil Wheaton is a great writer, a funny guy, a cool dad, and an uber-geek.
Your tweets always make me smile or laugh or force-project liquid on my computer screen, and I’ve come to look forward to the randomness that is @wilw. Really makes my day. A lot.
So, thanks for that. 🙂
You know, the best thing about this post for me was catching it on the LJ feed with a banner ad at the bottom that reads in big, bold black letters: I’M POPULAR AND YOU’RE NOT.
It just made me laugh, in light of how worried you were about coming across wrong. 😀
In a shocking twist, the person who painted Velvet Wesley will become one of the iconic artists of the 21st century, and Wil will be remembered in the same way that Mona Lisa woman is.[1]
[1] That is, people will speculate on whether on not he was having sex with Da Vinci.[2]
[2] Future historians won’t be very good at their jobs.