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One thing I think is missing from some conversations I’ve seen about the #twitterMigration is awareness (maybe on both sides!) that the experiences of some of the people coming from #twitter were very literally traumatic.

Felt dread all the time. Regularly driven to tears or worse. Stress manifesting as physical discomfort. Learned to walk on eggshells and feel shame and terror over spontaneous levity or genuine self expression.

Twitter did not necessarily have widespread and robust conversations about what trauma might look like in terms of social media. It’s difficult to think of it as even applying to yourself, if that’s a new idea.

If twitter people seem mistrustful, overly cautious, argumentative, too emotionally reactive or unreactive, prone to taking things personally, or prone to excessive self recrimination, they might be inherently difficult people, maybe. Or, spitballing, they might be recovering from a terribly toxic environment.

Or they might be giants, idk.