After Elon Musk brought Twitter for $44 billion and changes to the platform soon followed, some users are sharing how the platform not only changed their life, but was the catalyst for meeting their partner and starting their families.
Melanie Santos, 33, met her husband and the father of her 5-year-old daughter on Twitter in 2013.
“We had several friends in common and were both tweeting about the same trending topic,” Santos tells TODAY.com. “I started to look at his tweets and I thought he was really clever and witty and we tweeted about the same things, so I followed him.”
Her now-husband followed her back, and shortly after started directing messaging Santos.
“The rest is history,” Santos says. “He invited me to his 27th birthday party, and we’ll be celebrating our nine-year anniversary at the end of this week.”
Santos is not alone in meeting her partner on social media. A 2017 survey conducted by Stanford University found that 39% of heterosexual couples met online, including dating sites and social media platforms.
In recent weeks, many people have been sharing their own Twitter love stories to show how monumental the platform has been in their personal lives.
"Thank God I met my husband on twitter before it went down," one user tweeted.
"Met my husband on twitter," another user posted. "Made literally countless friends and it has entirely changed the path that my life — professionally and personally — has taken. I know we joke, but I’ll be genuinely gutted if this silly little app sinks."
Santos, who lives in Brooklyn, New York, says she never joined an online dating app because platforms like Facebook, Instagram and Twitter existed.
"When you get on a dating app, it's: 'Tell us who you are. What are your hobbies?' On Twitter it's: 'What do you think?'" she explains. "I think that's great, because you really get to know what's going on in somebody's mind."
Twitter is an ongoing harbinger of both good and bad. The site has been a source of online harassment and abuse, and ranked last among competitive social media sites for adequately removing hate speech posts from its platform, according to a recent European Commission report.
But while someone's Twitter profile can certainly be curated like any other online social media platform, Dr. Kathyrn Smerling, a family therapist practicing in New York City, tells TODAY that it's the more thought-focused aspects of Twitter that can lend itself to facilitating true connection.
"There are people who live to have conversations, and you can have conversations on Twitter that you may not be able to have on other social platforms," Smerling says. "It can highlight worthy relationships to build if you're really yourself."
He wrote that he enjoyed my tweets and thought I was funny and that we had a lot in common, and it just went from there.
jamie snyder
Jamie Snyder, 41, joined Twitter in 2009 because of her love of sports.
"I was using it to interact with Los Angeles Dodgers fans," Snyder tells TODAY.com. "I would tweet during games, keep up with scores and things like that."
Snyder's now-husband works in sports television production, and used Twitter primarily for work. After searching the Dodgers hashtag on the platform, he found one of Snyder's tweets and started following her.
"He was liking some of my tweets — you know, just hitting that 'heart' button — and then he slid into my DMs," she explains. "He wrote that he enjoyed my tweets and thought I was funny and that we had a lot in common, and it just went from there."
After some back-and-forth, Snyder's husband asked her out on their first date — a Dodgers game. Two years and three days later, in 2011, the pair was married. They now have two children, ages 9 and 5.
"I felt like, on Twitter, I could truly be myself," Snyder says, adding that when using dating apps she believes people "pick and choose the best picture and highlight only their amazing qualities."
"On Twitter, nobody knew who I was — I could be chaotic and funny and sarcastic," she adds. "I found a community of like-minded people who were just as chaotic and there for a good time."
According to a large body of medical research, meaningful connection and relationships are associated with a number of positive physical and mental outcomes.
"People who live longer have deeper relationships," Smerling says. "People who are mentally healthy and not lonely have relationships and connection. Relationships really bolster your life — they sustain you when you're sad and launch you when you're well."
The recent changes to Twitter, including layoffs and reinstating previously banned accounts, have saddened both Snyder and Santos, who credit the platform for not only helping them meet their romantic partners and starting families, but for continuing to provide valuable connection.
"It's truly heartbreaking," Santos says. "We're watching this show of greed and capitalism just take away something that has been really important to everybody. In the last 5-6 years especially, and Twitter has given us a place to find community."
I wish everyone could have the same experience that my husband and I did.
Jamie Snyder
"I was 19 when I started Twitter," she continues. "I'm 33 now. I went from joining Twitter, talking to my classmates in other dorm halls and tweeting about what was happening on campus to meeting my partner, starting a family and starting a business."
TODAY.com reached out to Twitter for comment on this story, but did not hear back at the time of publication.
Snyder does find comfort in her and her husband's Twitter love story living on in their children. She says her 9-year-old son "thinks it's pretty cool."
"I wish everyone could have the same experience that my husband and I did," she adds. "Twitter was a thriving community and you could find anybody — even your person."
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