I don’t have anything like your reach as a writer, but I see the same thing on Twitter all the time.

I tweet my stories out because tweeting them seems necessary. Using Twitter, I have over a number of years been able to increase my readership, and through Twitter some of my articles have come to the attention of major publications which have republished them.

That’s the macro view. The daily, micro view is much different and much more discouraging. Only a vanishingly small percentage of Twitter users read the articles I promote.

They aren’t interested in thinking about the ideas I write about. I say this not JUST about the people who disagree with me, but for the mass of my followers who tend to align with my views on LGBTQ equality and social justice.

It’s incredibly rare to see anyone on Twitter engage with ideas. As far as I can see by analyzing reader statistics, it’s incredibly rare for people on Twitter to read anything. I’ll watch thousands of people engage with strong emotions, comments, gifs, memes, etc, only to notice that a tiny, almost insignificant percentage of them clicked to read the article I tweeted.

Is this phenomenon strictly a Twitter thing? Maybe. Say what you will about Facebook, where I also promote stories, but Facebook users are far more likely to read than Twitter users, in my experience 5 to 10 times more likely.

I don’t know exactly what that says about what Twitter is doing to discourse, but it’s probably worth thinking about.