Thanks to Trump, I'm a Twitter Junkie

Where was I? Oh right, Trump and Twitter.

Technically, President Trump didn’t get me to check out Twitter. I’ve had Twitter since May 2008 (thanks Twitter). However, I rarely, if ever checked my Twitter. I posted a whole bunch in 2008, but it was silly mundane things like “Back home... finishing some books and watching Dr. Phil.” For me, Twitter never took off. I’m much more of a Facebook girl. 

 

My lame tweets

I talk to everyone on Facebook. I might not always share stuff (sometimes I’m boring, SERIOUSLY) but I check Facebook at least once a day. 

Some people do way worse things than check Facebook every day. 

Stop judging me!

I tend to look for things I like on Facebook such as local restaurants (Java Babas), politicians (Bernie Sanders), and businesses (Vermont Country Store). I also follow actors and directors I enjoy (George Takei and Kevin Smith). I follow artists I like Tori Amos, Sting, and Gaelic Storm – yes, I have random music tastes! A few likes for TV shows or movies get added to the mix - The Lord of the Rings, Doctor Who, and AGENTS of S.H.I.E.L.D, to name a few. In short, I follow things I like on Facebook.  I added Shadowhunters this past summer because, oddly enough, I liked it and I wanted to stay in the loop.

When the election happened this fall, I was more apt to post things to Facebook that agreed with my political views. I quickly learned that posting anything political became fodder for comments I truly didn’t care to deal with. It’s my prerogative if I want to #Resist, even if I’m too introverted to participate in things like the Women’s March. It seemed a natural progression to invest more time in Twitter once Trump was elected, if only to stay on top of his insane Tweets. 

 

President Donald Trump's Twitter Feed

Seriously, this is going to come back to Shadowhunters, I PROMISE!

So I started to used Twitter to follow rogue sites like RealDonaldContext, AltYellowstoneNatPar, RogueDeptOfEducation and Rogue POTUS Staff. There are SO MANY sites that it’s overwhelming and depressing. Yes, depressing. There’s just so much going on. I mean, I’m still pretty upset about the Bowling Green Massacre, but I’m learning to cope.

 

Alt/Rogue sites I follow

Somewhere between rogue twitter sites, fake news, and Facebook fandom, I can across a Facebook live video of the cast of Shadowhunters. I think I may have seen part of one before, but I most clearly remember one with Alberto Rosende and Dominic Sherwood in the Tweet Suite just before the Iron Sisters episode (02x06). I learned it was Dominic’s birthday and that he’s English, meaning that he has to adjust his accent when filming. Alberto’s favorite on-set snack is a peanut-butter and jelly sandwich with banana and he voted for the Falcons during the Super Bowl. Those two have some particularly amusing off-camera chemistry. 

But more importantly, it was during that video that I learned about live tweeting at #Shadowhunterschat.

Humble Beginnings - Before I was a Shadowhunter

It’s important to note that this didn’t start out as a quest to be a social media fan of anything.

Instead, my obsession with following Shadowhunters on social media started by chance.

But let me backup.

The last time I was so excited and engaged with a show or movie was back when Lord of the Rings came out before social media proliferated our lives. Did I go to midnight showings to each film? Yes. Did I see them all multiple times in the movie theater? Check yes again. So, in some ways this isn’t surprising.  

In between now and then however, a number of things happened. For starters, I moved in 2008 and one of the first things I did to save money was drop cable TV. Who needs cable when you can have Netflix and Hulu? Then I met my now husband and moved again, lengthening my commute from 10 minutes to 50. I also started a Master’s degree at the University where I work, decreasing the time I had for fun things like social media to almost nil. I finished that this past summer, but I was silly enough to take an undergrad course in the fall (for fun?!) Finally, this spring, I decided to devote more time to not stressing myself out with things like homework. What should I do with all of this free time?

I had rented the movie The Moral Instruments: City of Bones in Jan of 2016 (thanks for the history Netflix). I was interested enough in it that I wished there was more, but learned that the movie didn’t do so well. There was, however, a book series and a TV show version that was just coming out. This was all happening mid-thesis, while I was busy with a research project, gathering and analyzing data in order to write it into something coherent. I put off watching the show until later because, as I already explained, I didn’t have cable anyway. Watching it on Hulu would be easier and I could binge the whole thing in a few days rather than have to wait week to week.  I could also work it around my free time, which at that time was really rather limited.

This is incredibly significant because in setting myself up to binge watch I disconnected myself anything happening outside of the show. Instead, Shadowhunters existed in the bubble that all of the other shows I watch live. I watch them when I have time and once the episode is done I move on until I have time to watch the next one. So Season One happened at some indiscriminate time last year, and while I waited patiently for Season Two to start, I didn’t have hopes any higher than watching it at some point during the week it was aired on Hulu.

So how did that change?

I guess I have one thing to thank President Trump for.
            

             He got me to check out Twitter.