How Twitter Changed My Life As A Developer

(And How It Can Change Yours Too)

I never, personally was that big into social media. It always dawned on me how people spend countless hours staring at a screen eating away at their souls was beyond me. As time went on and I became a developer, I wanted to teach other people code and I didn't really know where to look or go.

I wanted to meet and connect with developers outside my environment, and non-technical people who might be interested in tech, as well; Which hence, Twitter. And more social media. And then the holy grail of it all, we are human, and we like connection or connecting with people by human nature. And now even more, with the stay at home order in effect, social media is not really going anywhere at soon. If you are using social media, Tik Tok is life right now, these days. Its' Everywhere.

So, What's the point of this article? To show you how social media can increase value as a developer or how you can leverage it to suit your needs about where you want to be in your career or your own business.

1 . Twitter Will Help Grow Your Value As A Developer

Everyone who is everyone is on twitter, Wes Bos, Scott Tolinski, Evan You, the list goes on. If you are working on a new article, or video, or anything and you are active on the site. Random people see it and retweet it(non-twitter people [repost it]) and like it. And after a while, you will have more followers than you thought interested in your content. And then, next thing, you know it, everyone knows you by the content you wrote, or a podcast you did, which leads to the next reason...

2 . Twitter Will Help Create More Opportunities For You

Before Twitter, don't get me wrong I still got job opportunities. But on twitter, there are people on twitter that literally spend their time helping people find jobs like this one, and this one, just to name a few. You don't have to use it, but it doesn't hurt either. Other developers collaborate alot on the platform as well. Here is one.

3 . Twitter Will Make You Care About The People On It

When I first started on Twitter, I thought of it as way, people just talk about random things, which is still true. But, everyone has a different purpose on there. For some its', simply to meet new people. For others, it is sharing their content, book they wrote, a new product they built, or a speaking engagement etc. And also it can be to meet other like minded or opposite minded people who can not only be colleagues but mentors as well. And when you are involve in all this, the connections you make, can also be the people you become friends with later, which makes it all pretty cool.

4 . Twitter Will 10x You or At Least Make More Aware of Tech Community

I never thought I would say this but because of Twitter, I found Dev.to. I went to this conference two years ago, called Refector Tech and then I met alot of Developer Advocates from Twilio, Cloudinary, Abstract etc. And they all kept asking if I have a Twitter, and I'm thinking who uses Twitter anymore. But, once I joined and took their advice, I was so wrong.

When I joined I met a developer on Twitter, and he told me I should start writing on dev.to, and here I am. Its also nice to find out the latest release for dart, or react, or whatever language you programming in, instantly. Its' nice. Or to find out when your favorite people in tech are releasing new content or when a new conference or event is coming up.

Twitter is not for everyone and there is definitely more ways to get the same response on other platforms but wanted to share how Twitter has and is evolving itself, and the dev community