Why Twitter Threads are so addicting?
How many times have you found a tweet like this, then clicking, ‘show this thread’? Your curiosity peaks in this moment and you instantly want to find out more. It’s as simple as reading tweet after tweet after tweet.
To be quite honest, my bookmark section on Twitter are FULL of these threads. Every topic, from regarding my profession all the way to ‘7 Easy Steak Dinners’. I am guilty when it comes to consuming this kind of content.
There is a lot of this content though, like A LOT. There is a reason though. Audiences love these kinds of tweets for 4 reasons:
- If the first tweet grabs your attention, you are hooked. As humans, we are wired to respond to a trigger. Now that we are ‘triggered’, a behavior ensues, which is clicking ‘show this thread’. Finally, we receive a reward when we read and figure out how I made a lot of money freelancing. It may not feel like a great reward, but you are now mentally satisfied.
- Tweets themselves are easily digestible. 280 characters is a great way to get your words into someone else’s mind. However, a successful twitter thread incorporates tweets that are usually just a singular sentence. This makes it even more digestible. 5 sentences broken down into 5 different tweets is much more attractive to the brain than 5 sentences in 1 tweet. It may seem odd, but that is the case.
- If you are like me, you want to learn a thing or two. I don’t look for the normal entertainment on twitter, but I seek lessons, knowledge, wisdom, tips, tricks, and education. Some accounts I use for spirituality and mental wellness. I digress, but many people come to twitter to absorb knowledge and take away something positive, in a non-distracting way.
- Sometimes, as I did above and below, people put a number in their thread. This distinction is important because now we know the expectation. We know how much we are going to get. This is soothing to us.
If you’ve fallen for a Twitter Thread Trap (Triple T), send it my way. I’d love to see what got your attention as well. If you like this story, give me some claps, if you’d like to read more, please follow me! Thanks!
